Fossils Hint at Who Left Africa First

An excavation in central Asia has unearthed a pair of 1.7-million-year-old fossil skulls, providing a glimpse of what may have been the first species of human ancestors to journey out of Africa.

The partial skulls resemble Homo ergaster, a contested fossil species dating to around the same time in eastern Africa, concludes a team led by anthropologist Leo Gabunia of the Republic of Georgia National Academy of Sciences in Tbilisi.