[E230]Modern humans out of Africa sooner than thought

Human teeth discovered in southern China provide evidence[提供证据] that our species[物种；种类] left the African continent[非洲大陆] up to 70,000 years earlier than prevailing theories[目前流行的理论] suggest, according to a new study. The 47 teeth exhumed[掘出；恢复] from a knee-deep[深到膝盖的；没膝程度的] layer of gray[灰色的], sandy clay[砂土；砂质黏土；砂质粘土] inside the Fuyan Cave near the town of Daoxian closely resemble[ 类似，像] the dental gear[牙齿] of “contemporary humans[当代人类],” according to the study. Homo sapiens[智人(现代人的学名);人类] reached present-day China 80,000-120,000 years ago, according to the study, which could redraw[重画] the migration map[迁移地图] for modern humans.

The model that is generally accepted is that modern humans left Africa only 50,000 years ago. In this case, we are saying the H. sapiens is out of Africa much earlier.

Maria Martinon-Torres, a researcher at University College London and a co-author of the study

While the route they traveled remains unknown, previous research suggests the most likely path out of East Africa to East Asia was across the Arabian Peninsula[阿拉伯半岛] and the Middle East[中东]. The findings also mean that the first truly modern humans — thought to have emerged in East Africa some 200,000 years ago — landed in China well before they went to Europe. The new discovery raises questions about why it took so long for Homo sapiens to find their way to nearby Europe.

The classic idea is that H. sapiens … took over the Neanderthal[尼安德特] empire, but maybe Neanderthals were a kind of ecological barrier[生态障碍,生态屏障], and Europe was too small a place (for both).

Maria Martinon-Torres

【百度百科】

尼安德特人（Homo neanderthalensis），简称尼人，也被译为尼安德塔人，常作为人类进化史中间阶段的代表性居群的通称。因其化石发现于德国尼安德特山洞而得名。尼安德特人是现代欧洲人祖先的近亲，从12万年前开始，他们统治着整个欧洲、亚洲西部以及非洲北部，但在两万四千年前，这些古人类却消失了。