Archaeologists have unearthed the 300,000-year-old fossilized bones of early humans — the oldest remains of Homo sapiens yet discovered, two new studies report. The ancient bones contain a mix of modern and primitive features that hint at an early, and previously unknown, phase of our species’ evolution.
On the family tree of human relatives, collectively known as hominins, our ancestors split from the Neanderthal branch more than 500,000 years ago. Fossils that looked like modern humans started showing up in East Africa about 200,000 years ago. But when exactly modern humans evolved from our most recent ancestor, probably Homo heidelbergensis, is a mystery. Now, two new studies published today in the journal Nature fill in some of...
