Oldest Eurasian hominoids lived in Swabia: Molar tooth dated at 17 million years old
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - 07:31
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Africa is regarded as the center of evolution of humans and their precursors. Yet long before modern humans left Africa some 125,000 years ago, their antecedents migrated from Africa to Eurasia many times, as is documented in the fossil record. How often, when and why hominoids went "out of Africa" is still a hotly debated field of intense research. Possibly, the first wave of emigration occurred 17 million years before the present, as documented by finds in the Swabian northern Alpine foreland basin. Researchers have now successfully pinpointed the age of a molar tooth at 17 million years old, making it the oldest known Eurasian hominoid found to date.