CNN
By Olivia Yasukawa and Tom Page, CNN
Earliest human ancestors discovered by accident 07:05
When researchers published findings in June of the earliest Homo sapiens fossils ever discovered, the scientific community was abuzz.
Three-hundred-thousand years old, 100,000 years older than anything previously discovered, they stretched the timeline of Homo sapiens, our distant ancestors, further into the past. It left humanity with a new first chapter, blank and waiting to be written.
But it was where the fossils were found that was more intriguing still. Ethiopia was previously the site of the oldest Homo sapiens fossils, and East Africa has long been considered the “cradle of life.” However, these new finds came from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco.
A long-held anthropological narrative became more complex. What were these hominids doing on the other side of the continent? Had they evolved in isolation to sapiens in East Africa? What happened during these extra 100,000 years, and could we determine a new starting point for humanity?
Being able to look at this mandible allowed the researchers to compare it to those of modern humans, as well as Neanderthals.
