Dmanisi hominins (earliest human fossils outside Africa)
Homininos de Dmanisi (primeros fósiles humanos fuera de África)
- Date
- c. 1.8 Ma · confidence high
- Place
- Dmanisi, Kvemo Kartli, Georgia
- Credited to
- Georgian-international team (David Lordkipanidze, Abesalom Vekua; Georgian National Museum)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
A site with five skulls and postcranial remains of hominins about 1.8 million years old, with Oldowan stone tools, the oldest human fossils found outside Africa. Their small brains and wide variability changed the picture of the first human dispersal.
The first fossil (a mandible) appeared in 1991; the skulls between 1999 and 2005. The taxonomy (Homo erectus ergaster / georgicus) is still debated. Older stone tools exist outside Africa (Shangchen, China, c. 2.1 Ma), but no human fossils.
What it led to
- the exit from Africa began with small-brained hominins and simple technology, not with an advanced Homo erectus
- debate over whether Homo erectus, habilis and rudolfensis are variants of a single polymorphic species (skull 5, 2013)
- early hint of care for a toothless individual (skull 4)