The first human ancestors to inhabit Eurasia were more primitive than previously thought, a WUSTL anthropologist has learned.
A team of researchers, including Herman Pontzer, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, has made the finding through analysis of hominin fossils in Dmanisi, Georgia.
The remains recently were discovered in the former Soviet republic and are the earliest known hominin fossils outside of Africa.
The fossils, dated to 1.8 million years old, show some modern aspects of lower limb morphology — long legs and an arched foot — but retain some primitive aspects of morphology in the shoulder and foot. The species had a small stature and brain size more similar to earlier species found in Africa.
“Thus, the earliest known hominins to have lived outside Africa in temperate zones of Eurasia did not yet display the full set of derived skeletal features,” the research concluded.
The findings, published Sept. 20 in the journal Nature, are a marked step in learning more about the first human ancestors to migrate from Africa.
The lead author of the paper is David Lordkipanidze, director of the National Museum of Georgia. Collaborators on the study include Pontzer and researchers from Georgia, Switzerland, Italy and Spain.
The new evidence shows how this species had the anatomical and behavioral capacity to be successful across a range of environments and expand out of Africa, said Pontzer. His area of expertise is how the musculoskeletal anatomy of an animal reflects its performance, ecological niche and evolutionary history.
“This research tells us that the limb proportions and behavioral flexibility that allowed this species to expand out of Africa were there at least 1.8 million years ago,” Pontzer said.
Dmanisi is the site of a medieval village located about 53 miles southwest of Tbilisi, Georgia, on a promontory at the confluence of the Mashavera and Phinezauri rivers.
Archaeological exploration of the ruins began in the 1930s, but systematic excavations were not undertaken until the ’80s. Pontzer has been studying the site for more than six years.