Part of an upper jaw with teeth found in Israel shows that modern humans ventured out of Africa much earlier than previously thought. Until recently, the fossil record suggested that our species, Homo sapiens, first appeared in East Africa around 200,000 years ago. Oldest Human Fossil Outside Africa Discovered in Israel“This is an exciting discovery that pushes the timing of modern humans leaving Africa back quite a bit,” says Darren Curnoe, an expert on human origins at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The site was once a rock shelter frequented by various prehistoric human species over many hundreds of thousands of years. “They represent the earliest association of this type of tool with modern humans outside Africa,” she says.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 25, 2018 18:56 UTC