600, 000 year old skull being studied in India

[Avinash]

A 600, 000 year old skull has been found in India.

The CT-scan report of the skull, found by the Geological Survey of India in 1982 may shed a new light on the evolution of man.

 

The scan on the skull was carried out at a hospital in Kolkata on 7 Sept 2005.

 

According to the modern theory of evolution, the evolutionary lines of apes and early humans diverged around seven million years ago.

 

Some two million years ago, Homo erectus expanded out of Africa into Europe and Asia. Over the next 1.5 million years the populations of these three continents followed different evolutionary courses and became distinct species.

 

Europe’s became the Neanderthals, Asia’s remained Homo erectus, but Africa’s evolved into Homo sapiens, from where it spread again to the rest of the world.

 

Former GOS Nagpur director Arun Sonakia said the skull was not of a homo sapien. He added that a study of the skull’s lobe structure, as revealed by the scan, can show which faculty of man was more developed at the time.

 

All interpretations will be done in association with experts from the Institute of Human Paleontology, France. Three experts from the institute — Henry de Lumley, Madamme Lumely and Emily Vialet — were present at the time of the scanning.