An ancestor of modern humans may have became extinct earlier than was previously thought, throwing doubt on a key theory of human evolution.

Homo erectus, widely considered to be a direct ancestor of our own species Homo sapiens, migrated out of Africa around 1.8 million years ago. By around 500,000 years ago it had vanished from Africa and much of Asia, but until now was thought to have survived in Indonesia until as recently as 35,000 years ago.

The new research suggests this assumption was wrong, and Homo erectus disappeared long before the arrival of Homo sapiens in Asia.

New excavations and dating analysis indicate that Homo erectus was extinct by at least 143,000 years ago, and perhaps more.

If this is the case, it challenges the widely accepted Out of Africa hypothesis which holds that modern humans became fully evolved in Africa before emigrating to other parts of the world.