Human Fossil Dated Could be Older Than 525,000 Years

A human jawbone found in a Serbian cave has been re-dated by using cutting edge dating technology.

A fossilized bone fragment found buried deep in the soil of a Serbian cave is causing scientists to reconsider what happened during a critical period in human development, when the strands of modern humanity were still coming together

The partial lower jaw, originally unearthed in 2006, could at first only be established to be older than 130,000 years. Evidence suggested it could be much older, but no one could prove it until now.

The fragment is now securely dated to be at least 397,000 years old and could even be older than 525,000 years.

The finding is significant because the fossil is distinct from its western contemporaries, suggesting it comes from the time before receding glaciers made it possible for isolated populations of primitive humans in western Europe to mingle with their counterparts from Asia and Africa to form a complex hybrid representing many regions and periods. The fossil lends weight to the suggestion that the Balkan Peninsula could have been a gateway involved in the movement of populations from Asia to Europe.

"During this time, humans in western Europe started to develop Neandertal traits, which are lacking in this specimen,"

Source

Personally, I find this to be an exciting find. It pushes back the date of human origins.

reply to post by 1questioner


Serbia?
I'd take anything coming out of that part of the world with a giant block of salt.

However if true I would not be surprised at all.

Originally posted by grey580
reply to post by 1questioner

 

Serbia?
I'd take anything coming out of that part of the world with a giant block of salt.

However if true I would not be surprised at all.

The resistance to change from the present consensus of the time and the fact that everyone needs research money lessens my faith on all of the scientists in this field. If someone challenges what they were taught here they will be discredited by their peers.

reply to post by 1questioner


When you say human, do you mean modern Homo Sapiens?

Well spear tips have been dated to 500,000 years ago in Africa so it isn’t real suprising.

I have a feeling the next few years are going to yield some bigger surprises yet from this area of study. S&F

The huge time differences prove once again that dating methods are severely flawed, and by extension all conclusions based on them

Originally posted by grey580
reply to post by 1questioner

 

Serbia?
I'd take anything coming out of that part of the world with a giant block of salt.

However if true I would not be surprised at all.

The dating was done by an international team of scientists:

The conclusion follows new testing and analysis by an international team including three researchers from Canadian universities, who were funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada: dating specialist and earth scientist Jack Rink of McMaster's School of Geography & Earth Sciences, physicist Jeroen W. Thompson of McMaster's Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences, and paleoanthropologist Mirjana Roksandic from the University of Winnipeg.

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
reply to post by 1questioner

 

When you say human, do you mean modern Homo Sapiens?

The article calls the jaw bone fragment "human" and says it lacks Neanderthal traits.

"During this time, humans in western Europe started to develop Neandertal traits, which are lacking in this specimen," Roksandic says. "Humans in southeastern Europe were never geographically isolated from Asia and Africa by glaciers and accordingly, this resulted in different evolutionary forces acting on early human populations in this region."

reply to post by 1questioner


That's good.
It certainly lends more credence to the discovery.
However we've seen how some of these things play out.

I would hold out for a little more confirmation before telling the scientific world, "Suck it! I told you you were wrong."

Fascinating find, but it's more about the "where" than the "when" in terms of significance:

The finding is significant because the fossil is distinct from its western contemporaries, suggesting it comes from the time before receding glaciers made it possible for isolated populations of primitive humans in western Europe to mingle with their counterparts from Asia and Africa to form a complex hybrid representing many regions and periods. The fossil lends weight to the suggestion that the Balkan Peninsula could have been a gateway involved in the movement of populations from Asia to Europe.

[...]

The new finding suggests there is valuable evidence to be found elsewhere in southeastern Europe, which could fill in missing pieces of the puzzle.

As far as the "when", the article goes on to say:

The physical characteristics, or morphology, of the jawbone and teeth are consistent with the period, says Roksandic, who studied the shape of the bone and the alignment and configuration of the teeth.

reply to post by 1questioner

A human jawbone found in a Serbian cave has been re-dated by using cutting edge dating technology.

And what magic technology would that be?

reply to post by Hellas

And what magic technology would that be?

From the article:

The new dating -- using three technologies (electron spin resonance, uranium series isotopic analysis and infrared luminescence dating) -- establishes the mandible as the easternmost European fossil of its age, sharing far more in common with African and Asian fossils than with contemporary examples from western Europe.

Originally posted by Hellas
reply to post by 1questioner

 

A human jawbone found in a Serbian cave has been re-dated by using cutting edge dating technology.

And what magic technology would that be?

What you don't like dating to range from 1,000 years to 500,000,000 years?? That's what all of our "modern" technology (ie: carbon dating) offers.......A joke more than anything......Why waste the money and just say it's old!

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein

Originally posted by Hellas
reply to post by 1questioner

 

A human jawbone found in a Serbian cave has been re-dated by using cutting edge dating technology.

And what magic technology would that be?

What you don't like dating to range from 1,000 years to 500,000,000 years?? That's what all of our "modern" technology (ie: carbon dating) offers.......A joke more than anything......Why waste the money and just say it's old!

lol!

It's funny how those "scientists" try to seem intelligent by guessing dates willy nilly. But that again who's the biggest idiot? The idiot himself or the one following him?

Could it be that some are upset that 6,000 year old earth fairytales are destroyed on a daily basis and they are trying to disrupt any discussion on the topic of scientific dating.

S&F this is a great find thank you OP for the post. My thoughts are when are we going to re-write history, we obviously don't have an accurate account of our own species even with this ground breaking technology? With all the recent discoveries of new ancient sites dating further back as well as now a human jawbone (Human, non-homsapien)
Maybe sooner rather than later we will find a library of some sort that hasn't been ran sacked or pilaged. Which in reality I find as a possibility. Could even be a undiscovered cave that was caved in that still holds more information. Doubt we would see that info but just saying.....

Originally posted by sulaw
S&F this is a great find thank you OP for the post. My thoughts are when are we going to re-write history,[/quote[

We do it constantly.

Just check out some of the history books of 100 years ago -- like H. G. Wells' History of the World that says humans are less than 40,000 years old -- as we collect more evidence and get more information, results change.

we obviously don't have an accurate account of our own species even with this ground breaking technology?

As long as there are still buried fossils, expect things to change.

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein

[What you don't like dating to range from 1,000 years to 500,000,000 years?? That's what all of our "modern" technology (ie: carbon dating) offers

None of the techniques referenced in the article involve carbon dating. It's only one form of radioisotopic dating out of many and generally only used for specimens that are less than about 100,000 years old due to the necessity for having independently obtained calibration curves for that particular method.

.......A joke more than anything......Why waste the money and just say it's old!

Why not try and understand the world we live in?

Interesting find. Humans and Neanderthals split apart from their common ancestor some time around then. It's not surprising at all to find a 400,000 year old homo sapien like fossil. People often think the the migration out of Africa was a one or two time thing, but I always thought it was constant. It makes much more sense. Too bad they only have a piece of the jaw. It could belong to the missing ancestor of humans and neanderthals that evolved from habilis and others. I wonder if it could be Denisova as well.