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Article: Modern Humans May Have Coexisted With Ancestor
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- December 13, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Startling new research indicates that the evolutionary
predecessor of present-day humans -- a smaller-brained,
thicker-boned, heavy-duty species called Homo erectus -- may have
lived alongside anatomically modern people for tens of thousands of
years in Asia.
The controversial study, reported in today's issue of the
journal Science, suggests that Homo erectus was still alive as
recently as 27,000 years ago, some 200,000 years after it was
supposed to have become extinct.
According to conventional theory, Homo erectus first appeared
in Africa about 1.8 million years ago and spread through Eurasia
until it vanished around 200,000 B.C., displaced by slender,
handier, brainier Homo ...