The Evolution of Man

[BorneanTiger]

The northwestern Saudi region of Tabuk has come in the news over the discovery of human footprints which were found in the lake-bed of Al-Athar (meaning “The Trace”), and dated to approximately 120,000 years ago! Footprints of elephants and other animals were also identified alongside 233 fossils, and these are considered to be the earliest footprints in the Arabian Peninsula: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/...091120.php, https://news.sky.com/story/120-000-year-...a-12075198, https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/...ans-arabia, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new...180975874/, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scien...om-africa/

Researchers identified seven prehistoric human footprints at Al-Athar, a dried-up lake bed in Saudi Arabia, credit: Palaeodeserts Project
   

Sediments, footprints and fossils at Al-Athar Paleo-lake, by Stewart et al. (2020): https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/38/eaba8940
   

A) Plan view of the Alathar paleolake deposits with researchers indicated by white arrowheads.
B) First stratigraphic section (units FS1 to FS3).
C) Second stratigraphic section (units SS1 to SS3) overlying the first but located toward the center of the paleolake.
D and E) Example of an elephant track and trackway, Proboscipeda isp.
F) Camelid trackway, Lamaichnum isp.
G) Camelid forefoot.
H) Camelid hindfoot.
I) Equid track, Hippipeda isp.
J) Bovid axis vertebra eroding out of the paleolake sediment. Photo credit: Gilbert Price, The University of Queensland and Richard Clark-Wilson, Royal Holloway, University of London.

However, contrary to what Sky News and the National Geographic said, it is not necessarily the earliest evidence for humans in the Arabian Peninsula, because the U.A.E. Emirate of Sharjah has an archaeological site that is dated to as far back as 125,000 years ago, at Jabal Al-Fayah near Al-Madam, on the border with Oman: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/331/6016/453, https://www.livescience.com/10340-lost-c...-gulf.html, https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110127/...11.55.html

Hand-axes like this one found in the U.A.E. indicate that humans left Africa 125,000 years ago. Credit: Science / AAAS
   

Close-up of the site of Jabal Al-Fayah. Courtesy: Knut Bretzke
   

It is worth mentioning that Jabal Al-Fayah was considered to be the oldest settlement of anatomically modern humans outside of Africa, since the time of its discovery in 2011, until an adult upper jawbone, dated to 170,000–200,000 years ago, was found in the cave of Misliyah, in the northern Israeli region of Mount Carmel: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6374/456, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20...140923.htm, https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2...years-ago/, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-01261-5

To quote the Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/jawbone-fo...evolution/

“Based on fossils found in Ethiopia, for the past 50 years scientists have believed that modern humans appeared in Africa, the “cradle of humanity,” roughly 160,000-200,000 years ago. The earliest record of migration outside of Africa was dated to around 90,000-120,000 years ago, through fossils discovered at digs in Israel’s Skhul and Qafzeh caves almost 90 years ago.

With this Misliya cave jawbone, however, the history of human evolution is being rewritten.

“The entire narrative of the evolution of Homo sapiens must be pushed back by at least 100,000-200,000 years,” said Hershkovitz, the head of the Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research at TAU’s Steinhardt Museum of Natural History.

The Misliya fossil not only resets the date for Homo sapien evolution and migration, but also spurs the mind-blowing implication that modern humanity did not evolve independently but rather alongside — and intermingled with — many other hominin groups, such as Neanderthals, he said.”

The 177,000 to 194,000-year-old maxilla (upper jaw) of Misliya-1 hominin, credit: Israel Hershkovitz, Tel Aviv University
   

Typical Early Middle Paleolithic flint points found together with Misliya-1, credit: Mina Weinstein Evron, University of Haifa
   

Misliyah Cave, where a jawbone complete with teeth was recently discovered dating to 177,000–194,000 years ago, credit: Mina Weinstein-Evron, University of Haifa
   

The cliff of Megadim, with the cave in the middle, by Hanay (5th of December, 2009):
   

Location of early modern human fossils in Africa and the Middle East, credit: Rolf Quam, Binghamton University, USA/NASA image
    Reply