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Ancient humans lived in tropic rainforests much earlier than we first thought , a new cogitation finds .
Before now , the early grounds of homo ( human being sapiens ) living in rainforest surround dated to70,000 years agoin Asia and Oceania , and only18,000 year agoin Africa .
A 150,000-year-old stone tool from the Ivory Coast
Now , according to a young study publish Wednesday ( Feb. 26 ) in the journalNature , investigator have find grounds that humans lived in rain forest - like orbit in Africa as far back as 150,000 years ago .
" Our results push back the earlier known mien of man in tropical forests by more than twice the previously make appraisal in another region of the humanity and also in Africa , " study wind authorEslem Ben Arous , a researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany , tell Live Science in an email .
Modern humans evolve from our hominin ancestors in Africa some300,000 years ago , according to the oldest knownH. sapiensfossils , which were found in Jebel Irhoud , Morocco . Others break in Ethiopia escort toabout 200,000 years ago . However , these were found in field that are thought to have been grasslands at the time of ancient human inhabitance .
The original trench where researchers found the 150,000-year-old stone tools in the Ivory Coast.
Related : Modern humans arose after 2 decided groups in Africa mated over 10 of thousands of yr
Finding and dating stone tools
In the eighties , researchers pick up stone tools , such as picks , eat up deeply underground at a land site named Bété I in West Africa ’s Ivory Coast . But at the clip , they were unable to date the stone tool , according to astatement . Now , with the Second Coming of Christ of new technique , such asoptically hasten luminescence , which enable researchers to see when objects were last break to ignite from the Lord’s Day ’s rays , researchers were able to date the putz to 150,000 years ago .
What ’s more , the team uncovered traces of ancient rainforest - specific plants , offering unexampled insights into the humid surround in which these ancient humans lived .
" Our palaecological cogitation have shew the presence ofHunteriaand Oil Palms , they are distinctive taxon [ a chemical group of organisms ] for this ecozone and that [ of ] a wet tropical timberland , " Ben Arous explain .
Nowadays , the southern Ivory Coast is a tropic rainforest ecosystem , but until now , it was unclear whether it was still a sozzled tropical timberland 150,000 year ago .
These breakthrough indicate that rainforest - like environments were not a barrier to human expanding upon , and instead were inhabited hundreds of thousands of years ago . Additionally , the presence of such old human artifacts in this region supports the possibility thatHomo sapiensmay have arisen in multiple topographic point around Africa , rather than all originating in a single locating and spreading outward .
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" We know humans did not have one single ' birthplace ' in Africa . Yet it is presently unclear whether we are calculate at humankind evolving in Africa ’s grasslands and savannahs , or whether a number of different environs were need , " Ben Arous said . " Our result indicate that we are looking at the latter scenario . "
Ben Arous also suggests that ancient humans who were strongly adapted to living in rainforests did not often encounter masses who were adapted to endure in open grassland .
" At 150 thousand years older , it ’s the oldest get laid internet site in West Africa and shows that people have been living in this region since at least the MiddlePleistocene , " Ben Arous said . " This is important because prior to our work , the West African record was thought to be much younger . "
Human evolution quiz: What do you know about Homo sapiens?
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