Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

An early hominin arrival in Asia

An excavation has uncovered stone tools in China that are about 2.1 million years old. This evidence pushes back the date of the earliest established signs of a hominin species outside Africa.
  1. John Kappelman

    1. John Kappelman is in the Departments of Anthropology and Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Imagine a world nearly devoid of humans. This theme is often explored in post-apocalyptic science fiction, and it was the case for most of Earth’s history until early hominins (members of the evolutionary tree that includes humans, extinct species of the genus Homo and other closely related bipedal species) moved out of Africa into unknown territories, to eventually populate the planet. Which hominins made this journey? When and how did they migrate, and by which routes? Field-based research that uncovers traces of these early dispersals could provide some answers, as well as insight into hominin behaviour. In a paper in Nature, Zhu et al.1 report evidence of hominin activity in China more than 2 million years ago, revealing an earlier time frame than was previously known for a hominin presence outside Africa.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 559, 480-481 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05293-9

References

  1. Zhu, Z. et al. Nature 559, 608–612 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Groucutt, H. S. et al. Nature Ecol. Evol. 2, 800–809 (2018)

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Harmand, S. et al. Nature 521, 310–315 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Ferring, R. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 10432–10436 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Muttoni, G., Scardia, G. & Kent, D. V. Quat. Sci. Rev. 180, 1–29 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Zhu, R. X. et al. Nature 431, 559–562 (2004).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Phillips, J. D. & Cox, A. Geophys. J. Int. 45, 19–33 (1976).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Ogg, J. G. in The Geologic Time Scale 2012 (eds Gradstein, F. M., Ogg, J. G., Schmitz, M. D. & Ogg, G. M.) 85–114 (Elsevier, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Quidelleur, X., Holt, J. W., Salvany, T. & Bouquerel, H. Geophys. J. Int. 182, 699–710 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Shea, J. J. in Out of Africa I (eds Fleagle, J. G., Shea, J. J., Grine, F. E., Baden, A. L. & Leakey, R. E.) 47–64 (Springer, 2010).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Nowell, A. et al. J. Archaeol. Sci. 73, 36–44 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Klein, R. G. The Human Career 3rd edn (Univ. Chicago Press, 2009).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Villmoare, B. et al. Science 347, 1352–1355 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Stevens, T. et al. Nature Commun. 9, 983 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Prat, S. C. R. Palevol. 17, 6–16 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Venkataraman, V. V., Kraft, T. S., Dominy, N. J. & Endicott, K. M. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 3097–3102 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Kelly, R. L. The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers (Cambrige Univ. Press, 2013).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links