Fossils of Homo sapiens, . have been found in a cave in Morocco with an age of about 300,000 years. The find calls into question the most common theory about the emergence of our species. The oldest remains of Homo sapiens found so far were 200,000 years, and came from Ethiopia.
Until now, scientists assumed that modern humans arose about 200,000 years ago in present-day Ethiopia. After all, that was the only place where such ancient remains of Homo sapiens, . had been found with its much more advanced tools than the other hominids used. In this 'Garden of Eden' thinking man would have developed quite suddenly, and then spread over Africa and the rest of the world.
Green Sahara
New finds in Morocco, published on 7 June 2017 in Nature, however, contradict this story. The fossils were found in old mines in the Jebel Irhoud region, near Marrakech. This does not mean that our paradisiacal ancestors now come from North Africa instead of Ethiopia, thinks Jean-Jacques Hublin. He is the author of the article and director at The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
According to him, we should let go of the theory where Homo sapiens originated in one place, and it is much more likely that humans have evolved all over Africa. The Sahara near Morocco was a fertile place at the time. It was green with rivers, lakes and wild animals that we now only know from Sub-Saharan Africa. The absence of the dry Sahara as a deadly barrier between the north and south of Africa makes contact between several early Homo sapiens populations across the continent plausible.
In this theory, modern humans arose in different places, separately from each other and next to other hominids such as the Neanderthals. The big question is why Homo sapiens is the only species that survived, but unfortunately there is no answer to that yet.
Brain developing
The recent find in Morocco contains more than twenty fossils of at least five Homo sapiens individuals, including a child. The skull fragments and the entire jaw have the characteristics of Homo sapiens, with thinner eyebrow arches than the Neanderthal, but a smaller cranial capacity. The brain was apparently still developing.
In addition, the archaeologists have found primitive stone tools, made with a technique that was also widely used by Neanderthals. There is a chance that these two different types of contact with each other and thus exchanged knowledge and skills.
This population Homo sapiens in North Africa must have hunted gazelles, lions and wildebeest. This is evidenced by remains of these beasts that were found with the human remains. But ostrich eggs were also on his menu.
Previous Moroccan finds
Jebel Irhoud is not a new archaeological site. A skull with human features was found as early as the 1960s. The theory that it was a Neanderthal was later revised. It would be another humanoid, later named by Homo sapiens was expelled from Sub-Saharan Africa.
But according to Hublin, it was indeed a skull of an early Homo sapiens.. It has characteristic human features, such as the prominent chin, but lacks other features that we see in the 200,000-year-old fossils from Ethiopia. This would indicate a gradual development of early modern humans across Africa and not suddenly and from a single location on the continent.
The current new find is the first on this site that could be dated with great reliability. The human remains were neatly located in the geological layer of the time they must have lived in, which also contained the stone tools. That made the age determination possible. The geologists used different techniques. They were able to measure how long the earth layer had been shielded from radiation from the atmosphere, how long it had been since the tools had been heated considerably (ie had been in a fire), and how old one of the found teeth was. The results were quite similar, and indicated that our congeners roamed around Morocco between 280,000 and 350,000 years ago.
Convincing
José Joordens, archaeologist at Leiden University and VU University Amsterdam, who did not participate in the research, thinks it is “very beautiful and convincing work.” The find of Homo sapiens this age was already to be expected based on genetic data, she says. “In that respect, it fits beautifully into the picture.”
It wouldn't surprise Joordens if fossils of early humans can be found all along the west and north coast of Africa. “We've been too focused on the East African reef so far. We need to look much further.” That the oldest Homo sapiens found so far in Morocco, Joordens thinks it is fantastic. “It shows the importance of Africa as a whole. Africa is big, a lot has not yet been discovered!”
According to Leiden paleontologist Wil Roebroeks, the dating is also “very solid”. According to Roebroeks, all kinds of populations of Homo sapiens, . probably lived throughout Africa most of which are extinct.