We know that our ancestors diverged from other apes in Africa. And for millions of years that’s where they remained. But at some point hominins expanded to other continents, in a series of waves that included our own species roughly 70,000 years ago.
When was the first trip out? The clearest answer to that question would come from skeletons. The oldest skeletons of hominins yet found outside of Africa are about 1.7 million years old, found in the republic of Georgia. But this week, a team of researchers who have worked for years digging into a giant gulley in China, say they have found tools as old as 2.1 million years. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, July 13, 2018”
