New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo Sapiens by J-J Hublin et al in Nature 8 June 2017

Homo sapiens emerged earlier than we thought.

This letter to Nature from a Max Planck Institute research team summarises one of those rare pieces of fieldwork that potentially re-writes a significant part of human history. If the conclusions stand up to scrutiny, then Homo sapiens started to emerge some 100,000 years earlier than previously believed. Moreover, on this basis Homo sapiens’ history encompasses northern Africa as well as southern. A sister letter by D Richter et al follows with dating evidence. There is furthermore a useful analysis of the two letters in an earlier Nature News & Views article by C Stringer and J Galway-Witham.

Link to letter: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v546/n7657/full/nature22336.html

Link to D Richter et al letter: https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v546/n7657/full/nature22335.html

Link to C Stringer and J Galway-Witham article: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v546/n7657/full/546212a.html

You may also like to browse other evolution posts: http://www.thesentientrobot.com/category/evolution/