Scientists Discover Key Period of Human Evolution

Remains of a child than 108,000 years ago gives an insight into the key period of human evolution. Like what?

The team, led by curator Harold Dibble at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology managed to find the skull and upper body of a child in Morocco, last year.

The results of this analysis of children's teeth make Dibble team can estimate the age of these children, ie 6-8 years. Dibble named this child 'Bouchra,' Arabic 'good news'. Although the name sounds feminine, this child is a boy.

In the period the child is living, modern Homo sapiens in Africa joined and began to spread to the Middle East. Meanwhile, meet the Eurasian Neanderthals.

"These findings fit the global debate on how and where and when modern humans appeared," says Dibble.

Archaeologist Curtis Marean of Arizona State University said the findings, "Combining the very small sample of hominids in Africa relics from that period. We do not know much about the human population at that time ".

Marean added, the child's age is very interesting for science. Because like the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, "These findings represent the first boy who comes from a crucial period of time," said Marean.

Although the child's skull has not been released to the scientific community and this team has not published a paper on these findings, information regarding these findings will be broadcast on National Geographic who funded the excavation of this.