News Archaeology

Humans moved into African rainforests at least 150,000 years ago

The Stone Age forest dwellers bolster the idea that humans evolved across Africa

Tai National Park rainforest

An investigation of a previously excavated site in West Africa finds that people inhabited that region’s rainforests, such as the one shown here, by around 150,000 years ago.

Dr. Alexey Yakovlev/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

By Bruce Bower

Humans lived under the leafy canopy of a West African rainforest by at least 150,000 years ago.

Previously, the oldest secure evidence for humans living in African rainforests dated to about 18,000 years ago.