by KATHERINE HARMON
A collection of Paleolithic tools unearthed from a rock shelter in the U.A.E. suggest that humans might have left Africa some 125,000 years ago–rather than 60,000 years ago as genetic data suggests. AAAS/SCIENCE
“The mechanisms of getting out of Africa should be understood in a different way,” Hans-Peter Uerpmann of the University of Tübingen in Germany and a co-author of the new study said in a telephone conference call with reporters on Wednesday. “Up until now we thought of cultural developments leading to the opportunity of people to move out of Africa. Now we see, I think, that it was the environment that was the key.”
Scientific American for more