- 14 Mar 2002
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Fossilised bones, initially believed to be the oldest human remains in Japan, have been re-identified as belonging to a prehistoric bear. Based on a recent in-depth study by researchers from the University of Tokyo and Niigata University of Health and Welfare, the age of the Ushikawa remains discovered in Toyohashi in the 1950s has been significantly revised downwards.
The Ushikawa finding means that the Hamakita remains from Hamamatsu—estimated to be 17,000 to 22,000 years old with dating technology—are the sole known human remains from the Old Stone Age (12,000 years ago or earlier) outside the southwestern Nansei Islands of Okinawa Prefecture.
www.livescience.com
The Ushikawa finding means that the Hamakita remains from Hamamatsu—estimated to be 17,000 to 22,000 years old with dating technology—are the sole known human remains from the Old Stone Age (12,000 years ago or earlier) outside the southwestern Nansei Islands of Okinawa Prefecture.
20,000-year-old 'human' fossils from Japan aren't what we thought
The bone fragments were once thought to be some of the oldest human fossils found in Japan.
