New study finds fire discovered earlier

LONDON - Human ancestors first gathered around campfires a million years ago, 300,000 years earlier than previously thought, scientists have discovered.

Traces of wood ash uncovered next to fragments of animal bones and stone tools in South African caves are the earliest known evidence of human ancestors using fire.

The findings suggest the art of making fire may have begun among species as primitive as Homo erectus, the first early humans to become hunter-gatherers....