Until now, almost scientists think the origins of our species began in East Africa about 200,000 years ago. Because the oldest fossil of H. sapiens so far is 196,000 years old.

But Jean-Jacques Hublin, director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and his colleague found new human fossil in Moroccan site, called Jebel Irhoud. As a result of radiometric dating, the fossil was 300,000 years ago.

300,000 years old means this discovery is very meaningful. Comparing the DNA of the modern-day human with the DNA of the Neanderthals, Homo sapiens and Neanderthals were separated from common ancestors 500,000 years ago. However, all of the homo sapiens fossils discovered so far are within 200,000 years, resulting in 300,000 years of missing link between fossils and DNA evidence. However, by finding this Moroccan fossil, this missing link has been filled for the first time. Scientists expect the fossils to reveal more about the evolution of modern humans.

Hublin was one of the leaders of the decade-long excavation at Jebel Irhoud. In 1980s, He first became familiar with Jebel Irhoud by seeing a puzzling specimen of a lower jawbone of a child from there. He first visited Jebel Irhoud in the 1990s, only to find the site buried. He didn’t have the time or money to excavate it, after he had joined the Max Planck Society. So they just cleaned the site up by removing some 200 cubic metres of rock that blocked access. Only after dozen years, they could restart the discovery.

“I would say the Garden of Eden in Africa is probably Africa — and it’s a big, big garden.” Hublin said.

June 10, 2017 Junsoo Kwon