Oldest Fossils of Homo Sapiens Found in Morocco, Altering History of Our Species (nytimes.com)

Carl Zimmer, writing for The New York Times: Fossils discovered in Morocco are the oldest known remains of Homo sapiens, scientists reported on Wednesday. Dating back roughly 300,000 years, the bones indicate that mankind evolved earlier than had been known, experts say, and open a new window on our origins. The fossils also show that early Homo sapiens had faces much like our own, although their brains differed in fundamental ways (alternative source). Until now, the oldest fossils of our species, found in Ethiopia, dated back just 195,000 years. The new fossils suggest our species evolved across Africa. "We did not evolve from a single cradle of mankind somewhere in East Africa," said Phillipp Gunz, a paleoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Liepzig, Germany. Today, the closest living relatives to Homo sapiens are chimpanzees and bonobos, with whom we share a common ancestor that lived over six million years ago. After the lineages split, our ancient relatives evolved into many different species, known as hominins. For millions of years, hominins remained very ape-like. They were short, had small brains, and could fashion only crude stone tools. Original research paper here.

Comments

Look outside of Africa, too.

[ScentCone]

300,000-year-old homo sapiens in Morocco is pretty interesting. But near precursors weren't only in Africa. The familiar narrative is being disturbed by other politically incorrect discoveries, such as 7.2 million year old ancestors in Bulgaria:

http://archaeologyinbulgaria.c...

Re:Look outside of Africa, too.

[Spy Handler]

Pak breeders. They are the missing link.

300,000 years ago is the correct time frame for their arrival, new science from Morocco has proven it

Re:Look outside of Africa, too.

[Oswald McWeany]

Yeah, but what about Women?

Women didn't arrive on earth until much later, they stopped off to buy shoes first, and then had to use the restroom, apply sunscreen, return the shoes because of buyer's remorse, and then get an overpriced drink from StarBucks before coming to earth.

Re:Look outside of Africa, too.

[GLMDesigns]

Unfortunately there are some people out there who derive self-worth from the fact that humans evolved from Africa. I have already passed by some Judah ben Judah folks who were calling humans arising from elsewhere than Africa as racist lies.

It's a shame - but there it is. So calling it politically incorrect - well, for some, it is. Just look at the Native American tribes who don't want to hear anything that challenges the established narrative,

It's just time travelers who didn't make it back

[jfdavis668]

A group of time travelers missed the return trip, and had to live out their lives lost in the past in Morocco.

Re:Simple question

[MightyYar]

This is pretty far down on my outrage scale. State schools have entire departments dedicated to studying classic literature. People are actually getting subsidized degrees in it. Sometimes learning can be for learning's sake - and I'm pretty sure "where did we come from" has very broad appeal.

Re:Not a single cradle?

[alvinrod]

The more likely explanation is that it evolved somewhere else at an earlier time, spread to multiple places, and there aren't enough remaining traces of it to get the full picture. The other alternative is that two distinct species (with obvious common ancestor) became similar because evolutionary pressures strongly favored a particular outcome. The first seems more likely to me at this time, but as we learn more about genetics and their role in various lifeforms the second might become more plausible.

Still around

[ArhcAngel]

For millions of years, hominins remained very ape-like. They were short, had small brains, and could fashion only crude stone tools.

They're still here. We just call them politicians now.