The Out of Africa Crowd May Shit A Brick

[Minimalist]

Clarification....sort of....from the author.

Damned reporters!


http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101231/f...0.700.html

According to the paper, the teeth cannot be conclusively identified as belonging to a particular species of human, whether Homo sapiens — the first modern humans — Neanderthals, or other humans. But the press release and some of the articles that drew on it state that the teeth are evidence that Homo sapiens lived in the Levant as early as 400,000 years ago.

Followed by this Q & A between Nature.com and Gopher.

Do the teeth that you found in Qesem Cave really provide evidence that Homo sapiens did not evolve in Africa?

We don't know. What I can say is that they definitely leave all options open. There's been a tendency for people to get so accustomed to the "out of Africa" hypothesis that they use it exclusively and explain any finding that doesn't fit it as evidence of yet another wave of migration out of Africa.

Were you surprised by press reports making claims that didn't appear in your paper?

I told all the reporters I spoke to, to be very cautious what they wrote. But that's what happens. [Gopher also defended the press release as being worded "more sharply" than the paper but that "it was not incorrect"]

(The second answer is fascinating.)

Also today comes this announcement.

http://www.pasthorizons.com/index.php/ar...ld-adapted

Researchers have reported in the Journal of Human Evolution that the long held belief that the Neanderthal nose was a result of adaptations to extreme cold may not be all it seems.

So the beat goes on.