Latest Chinese challenge for supremacy, only this time they preferred to go way back in time.
"The discovery of an early human fossil in southern China may challenge the commonly held idea that modern humans originated out of Africa.
Jin Changzhu and colleagues of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, announced to Chinese media last week that they have uncovered a 110,000-year-old putative Homo sapiens jawbone from a cave in southern China's Guangxi province.
The mandible has a protruding chin like that of Homo sapiens, but the thickness of the jaw is indicative of more primitive hominins, suggesting that the fossil could derive from interbreeding.
If confirmed, the finding would lend support to the "multiregional hypothesis". This says that modern humans descend from Homo sapiens coming out of Africa who then interbred with more primitive humans on other continents. In contrast, the prevailing "out of Africa" hypothesis holds that modern humans are the direct descendants of people who spread out of Africa to other continents around 100,000 years ago.
The study will appear in Chinese Science Bulletin later this month."
Jin Changzhu and colleagues of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, announced to Chinese media last week that they have uncovered a 110,000-year-old putative Homo sapiens jawbone from a cave in southern China's Guangxi province.
The mandible has a protruding chin like that of Homo sapiens, but the thickness of the jaw is indicative of more primitive hominins, suggesting that the fossil could derive from interbreeding.
If confirmed, the finding would lend support to the "multiregional hypothesis". This says that modern humans descend from Homo sapiens coming out of Africa who then interbred with more primitive humans on other continents. In contrast, the prevailing "out of Africa" hypothesis holds that modern humans are the direct descendants of people who spread out of Africa to other continents around 100,000 years ago.
The study will appear in Chinese Science Bulletin later this month."
As China and India are becoming economic super powers, they will be questioning every "assumptions" made by the West. I hope they start and stick to a rational debate. Chinese are right to support multiregional hypothesis as long as its backed by facts. Currently they have the money and brain power to do further research on this hypothesis.
An interesting thing I have noticed is everytime some one talks about Indian history, it usually starts with Indus Valley Civilization. Till date, I haven't come across any solid theories on what happened in India, after Homo sapiens came to India (assuming they came from Africa and genome proves it too) and before the start of Indus Valley civilization. What is the history of Dravidians? I think, we have to wait till the Indian GDP improves further (power of $$) but even then the Aryan / Dravidian divide is going to make this a Sisyphean task.
More and more truth will be dug out when paleontology moves in with Genetics and eventually leading to a marriage of necessasity.
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