Homo sapiens had reached South-East Asia almost 20,000 years earlier than previously thought; proof found in Laos

‘OUR ANCESTORS’ - Filipino geoarchaeologist Vito Hernandez (second from right, with camera) and fellow researchers at Tam Pa Ling cave, northeastern Laos, where they found bone fragments (below photo) of Homo sapiens. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN

MANILA: That research finding challenges current textbook assumptions about early human migration and should provide a wider understanding of the origins of our species.

This was the conclusion made by a team of scientists, including Filipino geoarchaeologist Vito Hernandez, after they unearthed “unmistakable evidence” of fossils and sediments showing that Homo sapiens—the only early species of humans that have survived— arrived in mainland South-East Asia 77,000 years ago.