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Article: Modern humans may need redefining.
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- April 14, 1990
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Modern Humans May Need Redefining
Many paleoanthropologists contend that fragmentary fossils found in caves at the mouth of South Africa's Klasies River represent anatomically modern humans who lived in Africa more than 80,000 years ago. Thus, the Klasies River Mouth specimens--consisting of several partial lower and upper jaw bones, about a dozen cranial fragments, a number of isolated teeth and four lower-body bones -- provide critical support for the theory that modern human populations originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago and then spread throughout the Old World, replacing groups such as the Neanderthals.
But two scientists at the University ...