Frozen in time for around 120,000 years, fossilised footprints in Saudi Arabia have pushed back the date when humans are first believed to have migrated from Africa.
The prints, which also include elephants, camels and horses, were discovered on the floor of an ancient dry lake bed in the Nafud Desert, a remote area in the heart of the Kingdom.
They are the earliest dated evidence for humans on the Arabian Peninsula, and pushes back migration dates from Africa through the region by tens of thousands of years.
Their discovery also provides important clues to major climate changes in the region over millennia.
I'm sure more finds will come out from across Arabia and Africa. And that will add and build the jigsaw puzzle as to what our species' evolutionary history looked like
The land these early humans found was not the arid, waterless desert of today, but stretches of green savannah with fresh water lakes, and crossed by flowing rivers.
Researchers think that these conditions made what is now Saudi Arabia so attractive for both people and animals as they moved north to Europe and Asia.
The investigating team quickly found footprints of elephants “because they’re pretty big, they’re obvious” said Richard Clark-Wilson, a lead author from the Royal Holloway, University of London, which worked with the Max Planck Institutes in Germany along with Saudi Arabian archaeologists and other partners in what is known as the Green Arabia project.
Further searching discovered what seemed to be a human print, confirmed by analysis that included 3D modelling and high resolution photographs.
Dating the footprints involved calculating the erosion of the former lake bed over time and “luminescence dating”, which measures radiation in buried grains of sand and works out when they were last exposed to direct sunlight.
“Prehistoric humans would be attracted to resources in the landscape,” said Mr Clark-Wilson.
“So freshwater they could drink, and they would also be attracted to their prey. And they're likely to follow the movements of their prey, and also the water resources.”
Changes in the prehistoric environment saw areas like the Arabian Peninsula become wetter and greener, while existing areas to the south became drier and most hostile.
Both animals and humans moved north in search of food and water, a pathway that led naturally out of Africa and into Europe and Asia.
It has long been accepted that mass migration of humans from Africa took place around 60,000 years ago, but recent discoveries have found some populations may have left much earlier.
Two years ago, Israeli archaeologists revealed that a fragment of jawbone dated back around 180,000 years, making it the oldest human remains discovered outside Africa.
The latest Saudi discovery is further confirmation that homo sapiens moved to what is now the Middle East much earlier than once thought.
The dating of the Saudi footprints have a margin of error of around plus or minus 10,000 years and it is impossible to tell if they were made by men or women.
Because they were laid down in less than a few hours, they provide a unique snapshot in time.
"We know people visited the lake, but the lack of stone tools or evidence of the use of animal carcasses suggests that their visit to the lake was only brief,” said Mathew Stewart of the Max Planck Institutes for Chemical Ecology, and co-author of the study.
“As to where they were going, it's really hard to tell it's hard to tell whether they managed to expand further on,” says Mr Clark-Wilson.
“They may have expanded across the Arabian interior further into Asia or they may have gone extinct.”
It is unlikely, he thinks that modern day humans are descended from these early ancestors, but rather from the later migrations.
The new discoveries, however, underline the importance of the Arabian Peninsula for the study of human prehistory, something which is now only being properly understood and studied.
“It's a really important region. It lies adjacent to Africa, and is the only land bridge between Africa and Asia,” said Mr Clark-Wilson.
“I'm sure more finds will come out from across Arabia and Africa. And that will add and build the jigsaw puzzle as to what our species’ evolutionary history looked like.”
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Rafael Nadal's record at the MWTC
2009 Finalist
2010 Champion
Jan 2011 Champion
Dec 2011 Semi-finalist
Dec 2012 Did not play
Dec 2013 Semi-finalist
2015 Semi-finalist
Jan 2016 Champion
Dec 2016 Champion
2017 Did not play
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20NOTHING%20PHONE%20(2)
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
