A
fossilized bone fragment found buried deep in the soil of a Serbian cave is causing scientists to reconsider what happened during a critical period in human development, when the strands of modern humanity were still coming together.
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The fragment is now securely dated to be at least 397,000 years old and could even be older than 525,000 years.
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The new dating...establishes the mandible as the easternmost European fossil of its age, sharing far more in common with African and Asian fossils than with contemporary examples from western Europe.
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The fossil lends weight to the suggestion that the Balkan Peninsula could have been a gateway involved in the movement of populations from Asia to Europe.
"During this time, humans in western Europe started to develop Neandertal traits, which are lacking in this specimen," Roksandic says. "Humans in southeastern Europe were never geographically isolated from Asia and Africa by glaciers and accordingly, this resulted in different evolutionary forces acting on early human populations in this region."
