Oldest Human DNA found in Australia
Australian scientists have found the oldest human DNA and these findings challenge the theory that the human originated from Africa alone.
Researchers analysed the DNA taken from Lake Mungo in New South Wales. This research has been done at Australian National University. The dating of fossils in May 1999 put the age between 56,000 and 68,000 years. Dr. Alan Thorne of this university states that Mungo man’s DNA do not have any links with fossil remains of Africa or other parts of the world.
Genetic evidence points to an evolutionary divergence between the lineages of humans and the great apes (Pongidae) on the African continent 5–8 million years ago. The oldest known hominid remains are about 6 million years old. Various fossils dating to at least 4 million years ago are classified as belonging to the genus Australopithecus and are found only in Africa. One of the australopithecines, either A. afarensis or A. africanus, probably gaverise to the species representing the next major evolutionary stage,Homo habilis , which inhabited sub-Saharan Africa until c. 1.5 million years ago. H. habilis, in turn, appears to have been supplanted by a taller and more humanlike species, Homo erectus . This species lived from c. 2,000,000 to 250,000 years ago and gradually migrated into Asia and parts of Europe. Archaic forms of Homo sapiens with features resembling those of both H. erectus and modern humans appeared c. 400,000 years ago in Africa and perhaps parts of Asia, but fully modern humans emerged only 250,000–150,000 years ago, probably having descended from H. erectus.