When Were The First Ever Human Fossils Found?

And who is the ‘Java Man’ ?

The discovery of dinosaur fossils is something we’re familiar with. The remains of these enormous creatures have been being excavated for centuries, but do we know much about human fossils? When were the first-ever fossils of man found?

via GIPHY

Let’s look at a timeline that tells the study of human origins by humans themselves.

1823

William Buckland of the University of Oxford finds the first-ever human fossils in South Wales. Named the Red Lady of Paviland, they are actually the remains of a 26,000-year-old male dyed in red ochre.

At first, the remains were believed to be of a Roman Britain era female, however recent analysis has indicated they are the bones of a young male. 

Remains of the Red Lady of Paviland

1871

Dutch physician Eugene Dubois finds early human remains in Java. Then called the ‘Java Man’ and currently known as Homo Erectus, the species is thought to have left Africa around 1.8 million years ago.

Original fossils of Pithecanthropus erectus (now Homo erectus) found in Java in 1891. Credit: WikiCommons

1884

George Nuttall of the University of Cambridge uses blood groups to uncover the first hints of a link between humans and African apes, presaging the use of sophisticated DNA analysis decades later.

1924

Raymond Dart identifies the ape-like human fossil Australopithecus. Initially rejected as implausible, his claims are backed by later finds, resurrecting Darwin’s Out of Africa theory for human origin.

Australopithecus fossil displayed at Museum of Man, San Diego, California. Credit: WikiCommons

1987

Allan Wilson of the University of California and colleagues use the ‘Mitochondrial Eve’ concept and DNA to argue that humans came from Africa less than 290,000 years ago.

Through random drift or selection the female-lineage will trace back to a single female, such as Mitochondrial Eve.

1992

University of Utah researchers claim DNA suggests all modern humans are descended from just 10,000 people who left Africa 50-100,000 years ago.

2008

An international team finds the first evidence for a new form of ‘Denisovan’ human that left Africa around a million years ago in the Denisova cave in Siberia.

2011

Researchers at the University of Cambridge reveal evidence that modern humans from Africa overwhelmed the Neanderthals, pushing them into extinction nearly 35,000 years ago, just by the sheer strenght of numbers.

An artist's rendition of life on earth 60,000 years ago, showing a Neanderthal family.