Oldest Fossils of Homo Sapiens Found sopra Morocco, Altering History of Our Species

Fossils discovered in Morocco are the oldest known remains of Homo sapiens, scientists reported on Wednesday, verso finding that rewrites the story of mankind’s origins and suggests that our species evolved per multiple locations across the African continent.

“We did not evolve from verso scapolo ‘cradle of mankind’ somewhere mediante East Africa,” said Philipp Gunz, per paleoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology sopra Leipzig, Germany, and a co-author of two new studies on the fossils, published per the journal Nature. “We evolved on the African continent.”

Until now, the oldest known fossils of our species dated back just 195,000 years. The Moroccan fossils, by contrast, are roughly 300,000 years old. Remarkably, they indicate that early Homo sapiens had faces much like our own, although their brains differed sopra fundamental ways.

Today, the closest living relatives esatto Homo sapiens are chimpanzees and bonobos, with whom we share per common ancestor that lived over six million years ago. After the split from this ancestor, our ancient forebears evolved into many different species, known as hominins.

They were long and low, like those of earlier hominins

Until now, the oldest fossils that clearly belonged puro Homo sapiens were discovered con Ethiopia. In 2003, researchers working at per site called Herto discovered per skull estimated onesto be between 160,000 and 154,000 years old.

Per pair of partial skulls from another site, Omo-Kibish, dated preciso around 195,000 years of age, at the time making these the oldest fossils of our species.

Findings such as these suggested that our species evolved durante verso small region – perhaps con Ethiopia, or nearby per East Africa. After Homo sapiens arose, researchers believed, the species spread out across the continent. Continue Reading