Page 28 - aruba-today-20190712

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 12 July 2019

Greek find called earliest sign of our species out of Africa

By MALCOLM RITTER are not convinced the fos-
AP Science Writer sil’s reported age and iden-
NEW YORK (AP) — Scien- tification are correct.
tists say they’ve identified Warren Sharp, an expert on
the earliest sign of our spe- dating fossils at the Berke-
cies outside Africa, a chunk ley Geochronology Center
of skull recovered from a in California, said the age
cave in southern Greece. of 210,000 years is “not well
Its estimated age is at least supported by the data.”
210,000 years old, making it Ian Tattersall of the Ameri-
16,000 or more years older can Museum of Natural
than an upper jaw bone History in New York called
from Israel that was report- the case for identifying the
ed last year. It shows our fossil as H. sapiens “pretty
species began leaving Afri- shaky.” Its shape is sugges-
ca much earlier than previ- tive, but it’s incomplete
ously thought, researchers This image provided by the University of Tuebingen in Germany shows the Apidima 1 partial and it lacks features that
reported Wednesday. cranium fossil, right, with a piece of rock still attached, and its digital reconstruction from a would make the identifi-
The travelers to Greece posterior view, middle, and a side view, left. cation firmer, he said in an
evidently left no descen- Associated Press email.
dants alive today. Other from the Apidima Cave in To establish the age, they it would have happened.” In response, Harvati said
research has established the southern Peloponnese analyzed bits of bone from Eric Delson of Lehman Col- the back of the skull is very
that the exodus from Africa region of Greece and later the fossil. To identify what lege in New York, who did useful for differentiating H.
that led to our worldwide kept in a University of Ath- species it came from, the not participate in the study, sapiens from Neanderthals
spread didn’t happen un- ens museum. researchers compared a said the discovery was and other related species,
til more than 100,000 years “Not a lot of attention was virtual reconstruction to the somewhat surprising but and that several lines of
later. The new work is the paid to it,” said Katerina shapes of fossils from known that southeastern Europe evidence support the iden-
latest sign of earlier, dead- Harvati of the University of species. “makes a lot of sense” for tification.
end exits from the conti- Tuebingen in Germany, Harvati said finding evi- a finding that old. Now the At a press conference,
nent where Homo sapiens who was invited to study dence that our species had question is what happened Harvati said it’s not clear
evolved. The fossil, from the the fossil. reached Greece by that to these people, he said. whether scientists will be
rear of a skull, was actually Harvati and others report time was initially a surprise, Did Neanderthals out-com- able to recover DNA or
found decades ago — ex- the results of their analy- though in hindsight “it’s not pete them? proteins from the fossil to
cavated in the late 1970s sis in the journal Nature. that difficult to imagine that But some other scientists confirm its identity.q

Japan says space probe landed

on asteroid to get soil sample

copper impactor. It landed procedures.” JAXA said the return home at the end
inside that crater on Thurs- samples have been safe- of next year. The asteroid,
day and collected samples ly placed in a container, about 900 meters (yards)
that scientists believe con- which will be moved to a in diameter, is extremely
tain valuable data unaf- capsule for secure storage. rocky on its surface and has
fected by space radiation “We obtained pieces of signs organic compounds,
and other environmental the history of the solar sys- scientists say.
factors. tem. We took a historic Hayabusa2 made a similar
This computer graphics image released by the Japan Aerospace Hayabusa2 is the first step,” said Yuichi Tsuda, landing at another location
Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows the Hayabusa2 spacecraft spacecraft to successfully the Hayabusa2 project on the asteroid in February
above the asteroid Ryugu.
Associated Press collect underground sam- manager. “Nobody has and collected topsoil sam-
By MARI YAMAGUCHI to the origin of the solar ples from an asteroid. A collected and brought ples.
Associated Press system billions of years ago, similar mission is planned by home underground mate- The spacecraft started its
TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese Japan’s space agency the U.S. National Aeronau- rials from anywhere further gradual descent to the
spacecraft landed on a said. tics and Space Administra- than the moon.” asteroid on Wednesday.
distant asteroid on Thurs- The Hayabusa2 spacecraft tion on another asteroid, Asteroids are rocky rem- In the final landing phase
day and collected under- had created a landing Bennu. nants left over from the for- Thursday, it hovered at a
ground samples that scien- crater on the rocky aster- The Japan Aerospace Ex- mation of the solar system. height of 30 meters (100
tists hope will provide clues oid in April by dropping a ploration Agency, or JAXA, With one of its most critical feet) and quickly found its
said data show Hayabusa2 missions now finished, the landing marker left from
touched down and rose next task is to get Hayabu- the earlier mission.
safely after collecting the sa2 to safely return to Earth The landing was a chal-
samples. The moment the with the samples, Tsuda lenge for Hayabusa2 be-
success was announced in said. cause of the risk of get-
the command center, ev- The asteroid, named Ryugu ting hit by dust and debris
eryone stood up, cheered after an undersea dragon remaining at the crater,
and applauded. palace in a Japanese folk- Kubota said. JAXA plans to
“It was a success, a big suc- tale, is about 300 million ki- send the spacecraft close
cess,” said Takashi Kubo- lometers (180 million miles) to the asteroid again as
ta, a Hayabusa2 project from Earth. Hayabusa2 is early as next week to ex-
member. “We achieved expected to leave the as- amine the landing site from
success in all scheduled teroid later this year and above..q