COLOMBO: People adapted to living in tropical rainforests thousands of years earlier than previously known, according to an analysis of 20,000-year-old fossilised human teeth discovered in Sri Lanka.
The researchers from Oxford University, working with a team from Sri Lanka and the University of Bradford, analysed the carbon and oxygen isotopes in the teeth of 26 individuals, with the oldest dating back 20,000 years.They found that nearly all the teeth analysed suggested a diet largely sourced from the rainforest.
The study, published in the the journal Science shows that early modern humans adapted to living in the rainforest for long periods of time.
Previously it was thought that humans did not occupy tropical forests for any length of time until 12,000 years after that date, and that the tropical forests were largely ‘pristine’, human-free environments until the Early Holocene, 8,000 years ago.
Scholars reasoned that compared with more open landscapes, humans might have found rainforests too difficult to navigate, with less available food to hunt or catch.
“This is the first time scientists have investigated ancient human fossils in a tropical forest context to see how our earliest ancestors survived in such a habitat,” co-author Professor Julia Lee-Thorp from Oxford University said.
The researchers studied the fossilised teeth of 26 humans of a range of dates. All of the teeth were excavated from three archaeological sites in Sri Lanka, which are today surrounded by either dense rainforest or more open terrain.
Tesla driverless system to use updated radar technology
WASHINGTON: Electric carmaker Tesla announced Sunday it was upgrading its Autopilot software to use more advanced radar technology. In a...
