When tracing the history of man, archeologists are constantly searching for the earliest evidence connected to modern man. This month, Israeli archaeologists revealed that they have come upon the latest in proof concerning the issue. It was also revealed that a new species of dinosaur has been found in South Korea.
Oldest Human Remains Found?
A team of archeologists from Tel Aviv University was excavating a cave located in the central part of Israel and made a significant discovery. Teeth that date back about 400,000 years old were uncovered at the site. To date, the earliest Homo sapiens remains are half the age of the teeth. An archeologist with the team confirmed that more research is needed before the claim is concretely made, but if the discovery is true to the age, the entire picture of evolution will shift.
Today, it is accepted that the Homo sapiens originated in Africa and eventually migrated to other places around the world. One of the people awaiting news of the find is a prehistory expert at Cambridge University, Sir Paul Mellars. He believes the find is a significant one, but it thinks it is too early to tell if it is the goldmine that archeologists in Israel hope they have found. He believes that it is most likely that the remains belong to an ancient relative of man called the Neanderthal.
Tiny Horned Dinosaur , South Korea
This month, news of the discovery of a new type of horned dinosaur hit the headlines. Scientists exploring South Korea have uncovered evidence of a rare find in this part of the region. The find marks the first of its kind. The dinosaur is estimated to be around the same size as a small human , equipped with a face like a parrot and tail shaped like a fan. Scientists believed that the tail was used for swimming, but still used two hind feet to hunt on land while it spent some of its time in the water looking for aquatic meals.
The find is certainly rare, as stated by Michael Ryan, curator and head of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, who lent a helping hand in the research of the dinosaur. Details of the discovery emerged in the November 18 online edition of the journal Naturwissenchaften: The Science of Nature.
The creature now belongs to a newly identified genus that the scientists established for the creature. It is considered the first ceratopsian (horned) dinosaur from the Korean peninsula. Since the fossil was located in Korea and Hwaseong City, the dinosaur is referred to as the Koreaceratops hwaseongensis. The find is significant, as it will help shed light on the dinosaur record in this part of Asia.
Scientists from South Korea, the United States and Japan all feel that the dinosaur lived around 103 million years ago. This would make the creature an inhabitant of the late Early Cretaceous period, which places the dinosaur as being geologically younger than the Triceratops. Bones associated with the new find was a partial skeleton that included the tail, backone, hind limbs, and hip bone of the Koreaceratops.