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 Scientists on Wednesday announced the discovery of teeth between
80,000 and 120,000 years old that they say provide the earliest
evidence of fully modern humans outside Africa.
The teeth from the Fuyan Cave site in Hunan Province's Daoxian
County place our species in southern China 30,000 to 70,000 years
earlier than in the eastern Mediterranean or Europe.
"Until now, the majority of the scientific community thought that
Homo sapiens was not present in Asia before 50,000 years ago," said
paleoanthropologist Wu Liu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences'
Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.
Our species first appeared in East Africa about 200,000 years ago,
then spread to other parts of the world, but the timing and location
of these migrations has been unclear.
 University College London paleoanthropologist María Martinón-Torres
said our species made it to southern China tens of thousands of
years before colonizing Europe perhaps because of the entrenched
presence of our hardy cousins, the Neanderthals, in Europe and the
harsh, cold European climate.
"This finding suggests that Homo sapiens is present in Asia much
earlier than the classic, recent 'Out of Africa' hypothesis was
suggesting: 50,000 years ago," Martinón-Torres said.
Liu said the teeth are about twice as old as the earliest evidence
for modern humans in Europe.
"We hope our Daoxian human fossil discovery will make people
understand that East Asia is one of the key areas for the study of
the origin and evolution of modern humans," Liu said.
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Martinón-Torres said some migrations out of Africa have been labeled
"failed dispersals." Fossils from Israeli caves indicate modern
humans about 90,000 years ago reached "the gates of Europe,"
Martinón-Torres said, but "never managed to enter."
It may have been hard to take over land Neanderthals had occupied
for hundreds of thousands of years, Martinón-Torres said.
"In addition, it is logical to think that dispersals toward the east
were likely environmentally easier than moving toward the north,
given the cold winters of Europe," Martinón-Torres said.
Paleoanthropologist Xiujie Wu of the Institute of Vertebrate
Paleontology and Paleoanthropology said the 47 teeth came from at
least 13 individuals.
The research appears in the journal Nature.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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