It is estimated that the age of the skeleton is 60 thousand years
Scientists at the Australian University (ANU) said Tuesday (Tuesday) that the examination of the earliest DNA, taken from skeletal remains found in Australia, challenges the theory that modern humans originated in Africa. The research is based on a 60-year-old skeleton discovered in New South Wales in 1974 and named after the lake where it was found, "Mongo Man". The age of the skeleton ranges from 56 thousand - 68 thousand years.
The findings, revealed yesterday in an Australian newspaper, show that the Mongo man has a genetic makeup that disappeared from the world, but his skeleton is completely modern.
The anthropologist Alan Thorne, who is in charge of the research, says that neither the skeleton nor its DNA has any connection to the ancient man found in Africa and other parts of the world. "Neither the skeleton nor the DNA shows that they were ever in Africa," Thorne said. "That's why you can find a modern person in Australia who has no connection to Africa".
The "African" theory claims that all modern humans evolved from Homo erectus which originated in Africa. Homo erectus evolved into Homo sapiens, which later left Africa and spread throughout the world - 100 - 150 years ago.
The researchers say the fact that Mongoose is anatomically modern, but not genetically modern, shows that at least one group of Homo erectus descendants evolved outside of Africa. According to the new theory, modern man evolved from Homo erectus in different parts of the world and not, according to the "regional continuity" theory, only in Africa. The development included integration between the regions. "The world became modern around the same time," Thorne said. "Like today, the gardens moved from Shanghai to Paris and Singapore to Cape Town."
Although the genes of Mongo man were different, his appearance probably resembled that of modern man. This is what Simon Estill, a heredity researcher from the University of Australia, claims. Thorne says that the age of the Mongo man proves that the ancestors of the aborigines in Australia arrived on the continent from Asia about 70 years ago - 30 years earlier than is commonly thought.
