(MENAFN- AzerNews) By Alimat Aliyeva
Fragments of human bones found in a cave in central Germany show
that modern humans - Homo sapiens - arrived in the cold highlands
of Europe 47,500 years ago. Scientists have suggested that this
date was 40 thousand years before the new discovery, Azernews reports, citing the journal Nature.
On Wednesday scientists reported that they had discovered the
skeletal remains of 13 Homo sapiens in the Ilsenhele cave, located
under the medieval settlement in Ranis in Germany. It was found
that the bones were 47,500 years old. The oldest remains of Homo
sapiens discovered so far in North-Central and North-Western Europe
are about 40,000 years old.
Jean-Jacques Hublain, a paleoanthropologist and head of research
at the Collège de France in Paris, said that the date of these
fragments was determined directly using radiocarbon dating.
According to him, well-preserved Homo sapiens DNA was also
obtained.
The species Homo sapiens originated in Africa more than 300,000
years ago, then spread around the world and encountered other human
populations, including Neanderthals. However, the fragmented fossil
record does not explain in detail how Homo sapiens spread across
Europe and what role it played in the extinction of the
Neanderthals, who disappeared about 40,000 years ago.
The study, presented in three articles published in the journal
Nature, sheds light on a new process of ecology and evolution of
nature. It turns out that at that time it was colder on the
continent than it is now, and frosts prevailed in Europe, which are
now in Siberia or Scandinavia – in the desert tundra. Homo sapiens,
despite its origin from warmer Africa, was able to adapt relatively
quickly to colder conditions.
The researchers concluded that small mobile groups of
hunter-gatherer tribes used the cave from time to time, wandering
through an area full of Ice Age mammals.
The study also resolved the dispute over who produced one or
another set of European stone artifacts belonging to the
Lincombe-Ranis-Erzmanovica culture (LRJ), including stone blades in
the shape of leaves that could be used as spear tips for hunting.
Previously, experts assumed that they belonged to Neanderthals. But
it turned out that these ancient objects were made by Homo
sapiens.
The scientists analyzed the bones based on mitochondrial DNA,
reflecting maternal heredity. Research continues using nuclear DNA,
which provides genetic information from both parents, including the
mixing of Homo sapiens with Neanderthals in Ranis.
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