Where Did The Human Species Really Begin? Maybe Not in Africa?

In an article by Peter Hutchison in the Wednesday edition of The Telegraph, it is reported that new findings may turn accepted science of the origin of the human species on its head. Maybe we didn't migrate out of Africa after all. 


Hutchinson reports, that a research team in Israel has found teeth that appear to be 400,000 years old. He writes, "The latest findings, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, said the size and shape of the teeth were very similar to those of modern man. Prof Avi Gopher and Dr Ran Barkai of the Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University also found evidence of the use of fire, hunting, and the cutting and mining of raw materials to produce flint tools, which suggested a sophisticated form of society."


This finding, if confirmed, will give one more example why---according to the "scientific method" model of research---no hypothesis is ever considered to have been proven. Hypotheses can be disproved, but that does not mean that the opposite has been proven. It just means that the opposite or another alternative becomes the new hypothesis set up to see if it can withstand any tests to which it can be subjected. 


Stay tuned. I have a feeling things are going to get interesting. However, maybe we should not get too far ahead of ourselves. The website for the American Journal of Physical Anthropology does not yet list such an article in its January paper issue or its February virtual issue. Science sometimes moves slowly.