{"id":39195,"date":"2017-06-07T14:26:24","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T21:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=39195"},"modified":"2017-06-07T14:26:24","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T21:26:24","slug":"humans-evolved-100000-years-earlier-thought-not-just-east-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/humans-evolved-100000-years-earlier-thought-not-just-east-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Humans evolved 100,000 years earlier than we thought \u2013 and not just in east Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

According to the textbooks, all humans living today descended from a population that lived in east Africa around 200,000 years ago. This is based on reliable evidence, including genetic analyses of people from around the globe and fossil finds from Ethiopia of human-like skeletal remains from 195,000\u2013165,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

Now a large scientific team that I was part of has discovered new fossil bones and stone tools that challenge this view. The new studies, published in Nature<\/a>, push back the origins of our species by 100,000 years and suggest that early humans likely spanned across most of the African continent at the time.
\n

\"\"

View looking south of the Jebel Irhoud site in Morocco, where the fossils were found. Shannon McPherron, MPI EVA Leipzig<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Across the globe and throughout history, humans have been interested in understanding their origins \u2013 both biological and cultural. Archaeological excavations and the artefacts they recover shed light on complex behaviours \u2013 such as tool making, symbolically burying the dead or making art. When it comes to understanding our biological origins, there are two primary sources of evidence: fossil bones and teeth. More recently, ancient genetic material such as DNA is also offering important insights.<\/p>\n

The findings come from the Moroccan site of Jebel Irhoud<\/a>, which has been well known since the 1960s for its human fossils and sophisticated stone tools. However, the interpretation of the Irhoud fossils has long been complicated by persistent uncertainties surrounding their geological age. In 2004, evolutionary anthropologists Jean-Jacques Hublin <\/a> and Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer<\/a> began a new excavation project there. They recovered stone tools and new Homo sapiens<\/em> fossils from at least five individuals \u2013 primarily pieces of skull, jaw, teeth and some limb bones.
\n