Early hominins from Morocco basal to the Homo sapiens lineage.

ABSTRACT: Palaeogenetic evidence suggests that the last common ancestor of present-day humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans lived around 765-550 thousand years ago (ka)¹. However, both the geographical distribution and the morphology of these ancestral humans remain uncertain. The Homo antecessor fossils from the TD6 layer of Gran Dolina at Atapuerca, Spain, dated between 950 ka and 770 ka (ref. ²), have been proposed as potential candidates for this ancestral population³. However, all securely dated Homo sapiens fossils before 90 ka were found either in Africa or at the gateway to Asia, strongly suggesting an African rather than a Eurasian origin of our species. Here we describe new hominin fossils from the Grotte à Hominidés at Thomas Quarry I (ThI-GH) in Casablanca

SUBMITTER: Hublin JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12823423 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature