First humans left Africa for China, Hunan teeth reveal

The history of human migration is being rewritten after a trove of ancient teeth was unearthed in Hunan. The discovery indicates that the first humans to leave Africa settled in China some 80,000 to 120,000 years ago – thousands of years before they arrived in Europe, reports New Scientist.

Archeologists found 47 teeth belonging to at least 13 homo sapiens under a layer of stalagmites in the Fuyuan cave in Hunan’s Daoxian County. “The stalagmites are at least 80,000 years old, so that’s the minimum age of the teeth,” says María Martinón-Torres of University College London. This makes the teeth the earliest evidence of modern humans outside of Africa and challenges the widespread assumption that homo sapiens arrived in Europe about 60,000 years ago before migrating to Asia.

Martinón-Torres gives two possible reasons for the route: Firstly, competition from Neanderthals may have prevented our ancestors from settling in Europe, and secondly, these proto expats were drawn to Asia by the warmer climate. “Homo sapiens is a tropical species, so it was easier for them to move east than north,” she says.