The teeth were found in the Lida Ajer cave in Sumatra.JULIEN LOUYSA new analysis of teeth found in a Sumatran cave in the 19th century finds that they did belong to members of our own species, and date to between 73,000 and 63,000 years ago. As reported today (August 9) in Nature, this is the first fossil evidence that humans colonized the islands of southeast Asia more than 60,000 years ago.
Cosmos reports that the two teeth were first discovered by Dutch explorer Eugene Dubois. Although they appeared to be human, it wasn’t clear whether they belonged to Homo sapiens or to a related species, such as Homo floresiensis or Homo erectus, according to The Daily Mail. In the new study, in addition to dating the teeth, scientists led by Kira Westaway of Macquarie University in Australia examined their enamel and other features to establish that they belonged to early modern humans.
Russell Ciochon of the University of Iowa in Iowa City writes to Science in an email that the teeth “may give us some clues about the early dispersal routes of modern humans.” He says that the researchers “have definitively and superbly demonstrated the presence ...
