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dc.contributor.authorGroucutt, Huw S
dc.contributor.authorGrun, Rainer
dc.contributor.authorZalmout, Iyad SA
dc.contributor.authorDrake, Nick A
dc.contributor.authorArmitage, Simon J
dc.contributor.authorCandy, Ian
dc.contributor.authorClark-Wilson, Richard
dc.contributor.authorLouys, Julien
dc.contributor.authorBreeze, Paul S
dc.contributor.authorDuval, Mathieu
dc.contributor.authorBuck, Laura T
dc.contributor.authorKivell, Tracy L
dc.contributor.authorPomeroy, Emma
dc.contributor.authorStephens, Nicholas B
dc.contributor.authorStock, Jay T
dc.contributor.authorStewart, Mathew
dc.contributor.authorPrice, Gilbert J
dc.contributor.authorKinsley, Leslie
dc.contributor.authorSung, Wing Wai
dc.contributor.authorAlsharekh, Abdullah
dc.contributor.authorAl-Omari, Abdulaziz
dc.contributor.authorZahir, Muhammad
dc.contributor.authorMemesh, Abdullah M
dc.contributor.authorAbdulshakoor, Ammar J
dc.contributor.authorAl-Masari, Abdu M
dc.contributor.authorBahameem, Ahmed A
dc.contributor.authorAl Murayyi, Khaled SM
dc.contributor.authorZahrani, Badr
dc.contributor.authorScerri, Eleanor ML
dc.contributor.authorPetraglia, Michael D
dc.date.accessioned2019-07-04T12:30:50Z
dc.date.available2019-07-04T12:30:50Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.identifier.issn2397-334X
dc.identifier.doi10.1038/s41559-018-0518-2
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10072/384894
dc.description.abstractUnderstanding the timing and character of the expansion of Homo sapiens out of Africa is critical for inferring the colonization and admixture processes that underpin global population history. It has been argued that dispersal out of Africa had an early phase, particularly ~130–90 thousand years ago (ka), that reached only the East Mediterranean Levant, and a later phase, ~60–50 ka, that extended across the diverse environments of Eurasia to Sahul. However, recent findings from East Asia and Sahul challenge this model. Here we show that H. sapiens was in the Arabian Peninsula before 85 ka. We describe the Al Wusta-1 (AW-1) intermediate phalanx from the site of Al Wusta in the Nefud desert, Saudi Arabia. AW-1 is the oldest directly dated fossil of our species outside Africa and the Levant. The palaeoenvironmental context of Al Wusta demonstrates that H. sapiens using Middle Palaeolithic stone tools dispersed into Arabia during a phase of increased precipitation driven by orbital forcing, in association with a primarily African fauna. A Bayesian model incorporating independent chronometric age estimates indicates a chronology for Al Wusta of ~95–86 ka, which we correlate with a humid episode in the later part of Marine Isotope Stage 5 known from various regional records. Al Wusta shows that early dispersals were more spatially and temporally extensive than previously thought. Early H. sapiens dispersals out of Africa were not limited to winter rainfall-fed Levantine Mediterranean woodlands immediately adjacent to Africa, but extended deep into the semi-arid grasslands of Arabia, facilitated by periods of enhanced monsoonal rainfall.
dc.description.peerreviewedYes
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherSpringer Nature
dc.publisher.placeUnited Kingdom
dc.relation.ispartofpagefrom1
dc.relation.ispartofpageto10
dc.relation.ispartofjournalNature ecology & evolution
dc.subject.fieldofresearchArchaeology of Asia, Africa and the Americas
dc.subject.fieldofresearchEcology
dc.subject.fieldofresearchEvolutionary biology
dc.subject.fieldofresearchEnvironmental management
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode430102
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode3103
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode3104
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode4104
dc.titleHomo sapiens in Arabia by 85,000 years ago
dc.typeJournal article
dc.type.descriptionC1 - Articles
dc.type.codeC - Journal Articles
gro.description.notepublicThis publication has been entered into Griffith Research Online as an Advanced Online Version.
gro.hasfulltextNo Full Text
gro.griffith.authorLouys, Julien
gro.griffith.authorPetraglia, Michael
gro.griffith.authorStewart, Mathew


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