Human Ancestors Roamed Quickly Find Hints Australopithecines More Widespread Than Thought

Scientists have discovered a partial jaw some 3 million to 3.5 million years old that suggests early human ancestors roamed over much more of Africa than previously thought.

The remains were found in Chad in central Africa, far from previously known fossil sites on the continent’s east coast and southern tip.

The find greatly extends the known range of australopithecines, human predecessors that appeared after the evolutionary split away from the ancestors of modern apes. Australopithecines gave rise to the group called Homo, which includes modern people.

In a second report, scientists presented new evidence for the relatively recent idea that Homo had left Africa and reached Asia by around 2 million years ago. Researchers reported that a partial jaw, a tooth and some stone tools found in a Chinese cave are 1.78 million to 1.96 million years old, making them the oldest known remains of human ancestors in China and maybe all of Asia.

The Chinese report also suggests that one member of Homo, called Homo erectus, evolved in Asia rather than immigrating from Africa.

Both studies appear in today’s issue of the journal Nature.

Before the Chad finding, australopithecines had been known from sites in South Africa and the Rift Valley in the east African nations of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. The Chad site lies some 1,500 miles west of the valley.