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[JonnyDBrit]

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/sc...mo-sapiens-fossils-discovered-in-morocco.html

Topics like this have attracted some attention previously, so thought it might be of interest to some.

Excavations at an archaeological site in Morocco have identified the earliest known fossils of our species, Homo sapiens.

The human remains and stone tools found at the site are between 350,000 and 280,000 years old. This new fossil evidence pushes back the earliest examples we have of the Homo sapiens lineage by more than 100,000 years.

The discoveries, found in Jebel Irhoud in Morocco, help fill in the patchy fossil record for our species and could lead scientists to revise their ideas about human evolution in Africa.

Fossils were first found in Jebel Irhoud in the 1960s, but were originally estimated to be about 40,000 years ago. At the time, these fossils didn’t fit with any working theories of human origins, so they were considered a curiosity.

...

Meanwhile, fresh examination of a previously discovered fossil tooth shifted its estimated age from around 160,000 to around 318,000-254,000 years old, putting it in the same timeframe as the tools.

The researchers compared the shape of the Irhoud fossil skull faces with a range of early and recent human relatives, such as Neanderthals. Their study showed that facially, the Irhoud specimens were most similar to modern Homo sapiens.

Prof Stringer adds, 'It is likely that different early Homo sapiens populations already existed in different parts of Africa about 300,000 years ago, as well as surviving examples of the more ancient lineages of Homo heidelbergensis (also classified by some as Homo rhodesiensis) in Central Africa and Homo naledi in the South.'

Tl;dr some human remains in Morocco got reexamined, turned out they were a lot older than previous record holders for homo sapiens.

Early and late neanderthal on the left, Jebel Irhoud skull and 20,000 year old homo sapiens on the right.

 

[E-phonk]

Bury if old

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1387531

 

[JonnyDBrit]

Dammit, beaten. Ah well, good to know!

 

[God Dayumm]

Can't wait till they find human fossils from 65 million years ago that lived along the tyrannosaurus