New Discovery

In January 2001, researchers from Australia National University successfully extracted mitochondrial DNA from the skeletons recovered from Lake Mungo in 1974, which is thought to date back some 56,000 to 68,000 years. Currently it is the oldest skeleton, including those of the Neanderthals, from which DNA has been extracted.

According to Alan Throne, the anthropologist at ANU, while this skeleton features all the modern characteristics, its DNA shows no relation whatsoever with the African origin of the modern men recovered from other areas. Results of research examining every skeleton recovered from Lake Mungo showed no signs of an African origin.

Such result signifies that not all modern men have their origin in Africa but at least those found in Lake Mungo were the modern Homo sapiens evolved in Asia.

On the other hand, anthropologist Milford Wolpoff of the University of Michigan announced in the journal Science in January 2001 the results he had reached through a comparison of the skulls of modern and archaic men. He found evidence showing that modern men not only evolved from Africa but also evolved through continuous interbreeding between modern men of African origin and regional Homo erectus and archaic Homo sapiens as well.

Wolpoff strongly emphasized that the skull from Kow Swamp clearly indicated the characteristics of Java man, the Homo erectus discovered in South East Asia, and that such characteristics had been passed on to the Aborigines of today.

Translated by Rie Ishida