Sapiens is a reasonable person. Homo sapiens

Homo sapiens ( Homo sapiens) - a species of the genus People (Homo), family of hominids, order of primates. It is considered the dominant animal species on the planet and the highest level of development.

Currently, Homo sapiens is the only representative of the genus Homo. Several tens of thousands of years ago, the genus was represented by several species at once - Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons and others. It has been established for certain that the direct ancestor of Homo sapiens is (Homo erectus, 1.8 million years ago - 24 thousand years ago). For a long time it was believed that the closest ancestor of humans is, but in the course of research it became clear that Neanderthal is a subspecies, a parallel, lateral or sister line of human evolution and does not belong to the ancestors of modern humans. Most scientists are inclined to believe that the direct ancestor of man was the one who existed 40-10 thousand years ago. The term “Cro-Magnon” defines Homo sapiens, who lived up to 10 thousand years ago. The closest relatives of Homo sapiens among the primates existing today are the Common chimpanzee and the Pygmy chimpanzee (Bonobo).

The formation of Homo sapiens is divided into several stages: 1. Primitive community (from 2.5-2.4 million years ago, Old Stone Age, Paleolithic); 2. The ancient world (in most cases determined by the major events of ancient Greece and Rome (First Olympiad, foundation of Rome), from 776-753 BC); 3. Middle Ages or Middle Ages (V-XVI centuries); 4. Modern times (XVII-1918); Modern times (1918 - present day).

Today Homo sapiens has populated the entire Earth. At last count, the world population is 7.5 billion people.

Video: The Origins of Humanity. Homo Sapiens

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Difficulties of classification

It would seem that no problems should arise with the classification of the animal species known as Homo sapiens sapiens (reasonable man). It would seem, what could be simpler? It belongs to the chordates (subphylum vertebrates), to the class of mammals, to the order of primates (humanoids). In more detail, his family is hominids. So, his race is human, his species is intelligent. But the question arises: how is it different from others? At least from the same Neanderthals? Were extinct species of humans really that unintelligent? Can a Neanderthal be called a distant but direct ancestor of man of our time? Or maybe these two species existed in parallel? Did they interbreed and produce joint offspring? Until work is done to study the genome of these mysterious Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, there will be no answer to this question.

Where did the Homo sapiens species originate?

Most scientists believe that the common ancestor of all people, both modern and extinct Neanderthals, appeared in Africa. There, during the Miocene era (this is approximately six or seven million years ago), a group of species separated from the hominids, which subsequently evolved to the genus Homo . First of all, the basis for this point of view was the discovery of the oldest remains of a man called Australopithecus. But soon other finds of ancient people were discovered - Sinanthropus (in China) and Homo heidelbergensis (in Europe). Were these varieties of the same genus?

Were they all ancestors of modern humans or dead-end branches of evolution? One way or another, Homo sapiens appeared much later - forty or forty-five thousand years ago, during the Paleolithic. And the revolutionary difference between homo sapiens and other hominids that move on their hind limbs was that he made tools. His ancestors, however, like some modern monkeys, only used improvised means.

Secrets of the family tree

Even 50 years ago, they taught in school that Homo sapiens descended from Neanderthals. He was often represented as a hairy half-animal, with a sloping skull and protruding jaw. And Homo Neanderthals, in turn, evolved from Pithecanthropus. Soviet science depicted him almost as a monkey: on half-bent legs, completely covered with hair. But if everything is more or less clear with this ancient ancestor, then the relationship between Homo sapiens sapiens and Neanderthals is much more complicated. It turns out that both of these species existed for some time at the same time and even in the same territories. Thus, the hypothesis of the origin of Homo sapiens from Neanderthals requires additional evidence.

Did Homo neanderthalensis belong to the Homo sapiens species?

A more thorough study of the burials of this species showed that the Neanderthal was completely upright. In addition, these people had articulate speech, tools (stone chisels), religious cults (including funeral ones), and primitive art (jewelry). However, he was distinguished from modern man by a number of features. For example, the absence of a chin protrusion, which suggests that the speech of such people was not sufficiently developed. The findings confirm the following facts: Neanderthal man arose one hundred and fifty thousand years ago and flourished until 35-30 thousand years BC. That is, this happened at a time when the species “Homo sapiens sapiens” had already appeared and clearly formed. The “Neanderthal” completely disappeared only during the era of the last glaciation (Wurmsky). It is difficult to say what caused his death (after all, the change in climatic conditions affected only Europe). Perhaps the legend of Cain and Abel has deeper roots?

Homo sapiens, or Homo sapiens, has undergone many changes since its inception - both in the structure of the body and in social and spiritual development.

The emergence of people who had a modern physical appearance (type) and changed occurred in the Late Paleolithic. Their skeletons were first discovered in the Cro-Magnon Grotto in France, so people of this type were called Cro-Magnons. It was they who were characterized by a complex of all the basic physiological characteristics that are characteristic of us. They reached a high level in comparison with that of Neanderthals. Scientists consider the Cro-Magnons to be our direct ancestors.

For some time, this type of people existed simultaneously with the Neanderthals, who later died, since only the Cro-Magnons were sufficiently adapted to environmental conditions. It is among them that stone tools go out of use and are replaced by more skillfully crafted ones made from bone and horn. In addition, more types of these tools appear - all kinds of drills, scrapers, harpoons and needles appear. This makes people more independent of climatic conditions and allows them to explore new territories. Homo sapiens also changes his behavior towards elders, a connection appears between generations - continuity of traditions, transfer of experience and knowledge.

To summarize the above, we can highlight the main aspects of the formation of the species Homo sapiens:

1. spiritual and psychological development that leads to self-knowledge and the development of abstract thinking. As a consequence, the emergence of art, as evidenced by cave drawings and paintings;
2. pronunciation of articulate sounds (the origin of speech);
3. thirst for knowledge to pass it on to their fellow tribesmen;
4. creation of new, more advanced tools;
5. which made it possible to tame (domesticate) wild animals and cultivate plants.

These events became an important milestone in the development of man. It was they who allowed him not to depend on his environment and

even exercise control over some of its aspects. Homo sapiens continues to undergo changes, the most important of which becomes

Taking advantage of the benefits of modern civilization and progress, man is still trying to establish power over the forces of nature: changing the flow of rivers, draining swamps, populating territories where life was previously impossible.

According to the modern classification, the species “Homo sapiens” is divided into 2 subspecies - “Homo Idaltu” and “Human” This division into subspecies appeared after the discovery in 1997 of remains that had some anatomical features similar to the skeleton of a modern person, in particular the size of the skull.

According to scientific data, Homo sapiens appeared 70-60 thousand years ago, and during all this time of his existence as a species, he improved under the influence only of social forces, because no changes were found in the anatomical and physiological structure.

Homosapiens- a species that includes four subspecies - Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Anatoly DEREVYANKO

Photo by ITAR-TASS

Until recently, it was believed that modern humans originated in Africa about 200 thousand years ago.

“Modern biological type” means us in this case. That is, we, modern people, homo sapiens (more precisely, Homosapienssapiens) we are direct descendants of certain creatures that appeared exactly there and exactly then. Previously, they were called Cro-Magnons, but today this designation is considered obsolete.

About 80 thousand years ago, this “modern man” began his victorious march across the planet. Victorious in the literal sense: it is believed that on that campaign he ousted other human forms from life - for example, the famous Neanderthals.

But recently evidence has emerged that this is not entirely true...

The following circumstances led to this conclusion.

Several years ago, an expedition of Russian archaeologists and specialists from other sciences, working under the leadership of the director of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician Anatoly Derevyanko, discovered the remains of an ancient man in the Denisovskaya Cave in Altai.

Culturally, he fully corresponded to the level of contemporary sapiens: the tools of labor were at the same technological level, and the love of jewelry indicated a fairly high stage of social development for those times. But biologically...

It turned out that the DNA structure of the found remains differs from the genetic code of living people. But this was not what caused the main sensation. It turned out that this - by all, we repeat, technological and cultural characteristics - intelligent person turned out to be ... an “alien.” According to genetic data, he moved away from our common ancestral line no less than 800 thousand years ago! Yes, even Neanderthals are closer to us!

“We are apparently talking about a new species of human that was previously unknown to world science,” said Svante Pääbo, legendary in professional circles, director of the department of evolutionary genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Well, he knows better: he was the one who carried out the DNA analysis of the unexpected find.

So what happens? While we humans were climbing the evolutionary ladder, a certain competitive “humanity” was climbing up in parallel with us?

Yes, says Academician Derevyanko. Moreover: in his opinion, there may be at least... four such centers where different groups of people strived for the title of Homo sapiens in parallel and independently of each other!

He told ITAR-TASS about the main provisions of the new concept, already sometimes called the “new revolution in anthropology”.

Before moving on to the essence of the matter, let's start with the “pre-revolutionary situation”. Before current events, what was the picture of human evolution?

We can confidently say that humanity originated in Africa. The first traces of creatures that learned to make tools have been discovered today in the area of ​​the East African Rift, stretching in the meridional direction from the Dead Sea basin through the Red Sea and further across the territory of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania.

The spread of the first people to Eurasia and their settlement of vast territories in Asia and Europe occurred in a mode of gradual development of the most favorable ecological niches for living and then moving into adjacent areas. Scientists attribute the beginning of the process of human penetration into Eurasia to a wide chronological range from 2 to 1 million years ago.

The largest population of ancient Homo that emerged from Africa was associated with the species Homo ergaster-erectus and the so-called Oldowan industry. In this context, industry means a certain technology, a culture of stone processing. Oldowan or Oldowan - the most primitive of them, when a stone, most often a pebble, which is why this culture is also called pebble, was split in half to get a sharp edge without additional processing.

About 450–350 thousand years ago, the second global migration flow began to move to the east of Eurasia from the Middle East. It is associated with the spread of the Late Acheulean industry, in which people made macroliths - stone axes and flakes.

During its advancement, the new human population in many territories met the population of the first migration wave, and therefore there is a mixture of two industries - pebble and late Acheulean.

But here’s what’s interesting: judging by the nature of the finds, the second wave reached only India and Mongolia. She didn't go any further. In any case, the overall difference between the industry of East and Southeast Asia and the industry of the rest of Eurasia is noticeable. This means, in turn, that since the first appearance of the oldest human populations in East and Southeast Asia 1.8–1.3 million years ago, there has been a continuous and independent development of both the physical type of man and his culture. And this alone contradicts the theory of the monocentric origin of modern man.

- But you just said that man was born in Africa?..

It is very important to emphasize, and it was not by chance that I did this: we are talking about a person of a modern anatomical type. According to the monocentric hypothesis, it formed 200–150 thousand years ago in Africa, and 80–60 thousand years ago it began to spread to Eurasia and Australia.

However, this hypothesis leaves many problems unresolved.

For example, the researchers are primarily faced with the question: why, if a person of the modern physical type arose at least 150 thousand years ago, then the Upper Paleolithic culture, which is associated with Homo sapiens, appeared only 50–40 thousand years ago?

Or: if the Upper Paleolithic culture spread to other continents with modern man, then why did its products appear almost simultaneously in regions of Eurasia that were very distant from each other? And besides, significantly differing from each other in basic technical and typological characteristics?

And further. According to archaeological data, a person of a modern physical type settled in Australia 50, and maybe 60 thousand years ago, while in the territories adjacent to East Africa on the African continent itself he appeared... later! In South Africa, judging by anthropological finds, about 40 thousand years ago, in Central and Western Africa, apparently, about 30 thousand years ago, and only in Northern Africa, about 50 thousand years ago. How can we explain the fact that modern man first penetrated into Australia, and only then settled across the African continent?

And how, from the point of view of monocentrism, can we explain the fact that Homo sapiens was able to cover a gigantic distance (more than 10 thousand km) in 5–10 thousand years without leaving any traces along the path of its movement? Indeed, in South, Southeast and East Asia 80–30 thousand years ago, in the event of the replacement of the autochthonous population by newcomers, a complete change of industry should have occurred, but this is not at all visible in East Asia. Moreover, between the regions with the Upper Paleolithic industry there were territories where the Middle Paleolithic culture continued to exist.

Did you swim on something, as some suggest? But in Southern and Eastern Africa, at the sites of the final middle and early stages of the Upper Paleolithic, no means of swimming were found. Moreover, in these industries there are no tools for working wood, and without them it is impossible to build boats and other similar means on which one could go to Australia.

What about genetic data? They show that all modern people are descendants of one “father” who lived precisely in Africa and just about 80 thousand years ago...

Well, in fact, monocentrists, based on a study of DNA variability in modern people, suggest that it was in the period 80 - 60 thousand years ago that a demographic explosion occurred in Africa, and as a result of a sharp increase in population and a lack of food resources, a migration wave spilled into Eurasia .

But with all due respect to the data of genetic research, it is impossible to believe in the infallibility of these conclusions without having any convincing archaeological and anthropological evidence to support them. And yet there are none!

Look here. It must be borne in mind that with the average life expectancy at that time being about 25 years, offspring in most cases were left without parents at an immature age. With high postnatal and child mortality, as well as mortality among adolescents due to the early loss of parents, there is no reason to talk about a demographic explosion.

But even if we agree that 80 - 60 thousand years ago in East Africa there was a rapid population growth, which determined the need to search for new food resources and, accordingly, the settlement of new territories, the question arises: why migration flows were initially directed far to the east , all the way to Australia?

In short, the extensive archaeological material from the studied Paleolithic sites of South, Southeast and East Asia in the range of 60–30 thousand years ago does not allow us to trace the wave of migration of anatomically modern people from Africa. In these territories there is not only no change in culture, which should have happened if the autochthonous population was replaced by newcomers, but also clearly expressed innovations indicating acculturation. Such authoritative researchers as F.J. Habgood and N.R. Franklin draws a clear conclusion: the indigenous people of Australia never had the full African “package” of innovations, since they were not from Africa.

Or let's take China. Extensive archaeological material from hundreds of studied Paleolithic sites in East and Southeast Asia indicates the continuity of industrial development in this territory over the last million years. Perhaps, as a result of paleoecological disasters (cold snap, etc.), the range of ancient human populations in the Chinese-Malayan zone narrowed, but archanthropes never left it. Here, both man himself and his culture developed evolutionarily, without any significant outside influences. No similarity with African industries can be traced in the chronological interval 70–30 thousand years ago in Southeast and East Asia. According to the extensive archaeological material available, no migration of people from the west to the territory of China can be traced in the chronological interval of 120–30 thousand years ago.

But over the past 50 years, numerous finds have been discovered in China that make it possible to trace the continuity not only between the ancient anthropological type and modern Chinese populations, but also between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. In addition, they have a mosaic of morphological characteristics. This indicates a gradual transition from one species to another and indicates that human evolution in China is characterized by continuity and hybridization or interspecific crossing.

In other words, the evolutionary development of Asian Homo erectus took place in East and Southeast Asia for more than 1 million years. This does not exclude the arrival of small populations from neighboring regions and the possibility of gene exchange, especially in areas bordering neighboring populations. But taking into account the closeness of the Paleolithic industries of East and Southeast Asia and their difference from the industries of the adjacent western regions, it can be argued that at the end of the Middle - beginning of the Upper Pleistocene, a person of the modern physical type Homo sapiens orientalensis was formed on the basis of the autochthonous erectoid form of Homo in East and Southeast Asia, along with Africa.

That is, it turns out that the path to sapiens was traversed by different descendants of erectus, independent of each other? From one cutting did different shoots develop, which then intertwined again into one trunk? How can this be?

To understand this process, let's look at the history of the Neanderthals. Moreover, over 150 years of research, hundreds of different sites, settlements, and burials of this species have been studied.

Neanderthals settled mainly in Europe. Their morphological type was adapted to the harsh climatic conditions of northern latitudes. In addition, their Paleolithic locations have also been discovered in the Middle East, Western and Central Asia, and southern Siberia.

They were short, stocky people with great physical strength. Their brain volume was 1400 cubic centimeters and was not inferior to the average brain volume of modern people. Many archaeologists paid attention to the great efficiency of the Neanderthal industry at the final stage of the Middle Paleolithic and the presence in them of many elements of behavior characteristic of a person of a modern anatomical type. There is much evidence of the deliberate burial of their relatives by Neanderthals. They used tools similar to those that developed in parallel in Africa and the East. They also exhibited many other elements of modern human behavior. It is no coincidence that this species – or subspecies – is also considered “intelligent” today: Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.

But it originated between 250 and 300 thousand years ago! That is, it also developed in parallel, not under the influence of “African” man, who can be designated as Homo sapiens africaniensis . And we are left with only one solution: to consider the transition from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic in Western and Central Europe as an autochthonous phenomenon.

- Yes, but there are no Neanderthals today! Just as there is no Chinese Homosapiensorientalensis…

Yes, according to many researchers, Neanderthals were subsequently replaced in Europe by humans of a modern anatomical type who came out of Africa. But others believe that perhaps the fate of Neanderthals was not so sad. One of the leading anthropologists, Erik Trinkaus, having compared Neanderthals and modern humans using 75 traits, came to the conclusion that about a quarter of the traits are characteristic of both Neanderthals and modern humans, the same amount are characteristic of Neanderthals only, and approximately half are characteristic of modern humans.

In addition, genetic research suggests that up to 4 percent of the genome of modern non-Africans is derived from Neanderthals. The famous researcher Richard Greene and his co-authors, including geneticists, anthropologists and archaeologists, made a very important remark: “... Neanderthals are equally closely related to the Chinese, Papuans and French.” He notes that the results of studying the Neanderthal genome may not be compatible with the hypothesis of the origin of modern humans from a small African population, which then displaced all other forms of Homo and spread across the planet.

At the current level of research, there is no doubt that in the border areas inhabited by Neanderthals and modern humans, or in the territories of their cross settlement, processes not only of cultural diffusion, but also hybridization and assimilation took place. Homo sapiens neanderthalensis undoubtedly contributed to the morphology and genome of modern humans.

Now is the time to remember your sensational discovery in the Denisovskaya Cave in Altai, where another species or subspecies of ancient man was discovered. And also - the tools are quite sapiens, but in terms of genetics - they are not of African origin, and there are more differences with Homo sapiens than with Neanderthals. Although he is not a Neanderthal either...

As a result of field research in Altai over the last quarter of a century, over 70 cultural horizons belonging to the Early, Middle and Upper Paleolithic have been identified at nine cave sites and more than 10 open sites. The chronological range of 100–30 thousand years ago includes about 60 cultural horizons, to varying degrees saturated with archaeological and paleontological material.

Based on extensive materials obtained as a result of field and laboratory studies, it can be rightfully stated that the development of human culture in this territory occurred as a result of the evolutionary development of the Middle Paleolithic industry without any noticeable influences associated with the infiltration of populations with a different culture.

- So no one came and made innovations?

Judge for yourself. In Denisova Cave, 14 cultural-containing layers have been identified, in some of them several habitat horizons have been traced. The most ancient finds, apparently dating back to the Late Acheulean time - the Early Middle Paleolithic, were recorded in the 22nd layer - 282 ± 56 thousand years ago. Next is the gap. The following culture-containing horizons from the 20th to the 12th belong to the Middle Paleolithic, and the 11th and 9th layers are Upper Paleolithic. Please note: there is no gap here.

In all Middle Paleolithic horizons, the continuous evolution of the stone industry can be traced. Particularly important are materials from cultural horizons 18–12, which belong to the chronological interval of 90–50 thousand years ago. But what is especially important: these are things, in general, of the same level that a person of our biological type had. A clear confirmation of the “modern” behavior of the population of the Altai Mountains 50–40 thousand years ago is the bone industry (needles, awls, bases for composite tools) and non-utilitarian items made of bone, stone, shells (beads, pendants, etc.). An unexpected find was a fragment of a stone bracelet, the design of which used several techniques: grinding, polishing, sawing and drilling.

About 45 thousand years ago, a Mousterian-type industry appeared in Altai. This is the culture of the Neanderthals. That is, some group of them got here and settled for a while. Apparently, this small population was forced out of Central Asia (for example, Uzbekistan, Teshik-Tash cave) by a person of a modern physical type.

It did not exist for long in Altai. Its fate is unknown: either it was assimilated by the autochthonous population, or it died out.

As a result, we see: all the archaeological material accumulated as a result of almost 30 years of field research of multilayer cave sites and open sites in Altai convincingly testifies to the autochthonous, independent formation here 50-45 thousand years ago of the Upper Paleolithic industry - one of the brightest and expressive in Eurasia. This means that the formation of the Upper Paleolithic culture, characteristic of modern humans, occurs in Altai as a result of the evolutionary development of the autochthonous Middle Paleolithic industry.

At the same time, genetically they are not “our” people, right? A study conducted by the famous Svante Pääbo showed that we are even less related to them than to Neanderthals...

We didn't expect this ourselves! After all, judging by the stone and bone industry, the presence of a large number of non-utilitarian items, methods and techniques of life support, the presence of items obtained through exchange over many hundreds of kilometers, people living in Altai had modern human behavior. And we, archaeologists, were sure that genetically this population belonged to people of a modern anatomical type.

However, the results of deciphering human nuclear DNA, made from the phalanx of a finger from Denisova Cave at the same Institute of Population Genetics, turned out to be unexpected for everyone. The Denisovan genome deviated from the reference human genome 804 thousand years ago! And they separated from the Neanderthals 640 thousand years ago.

- But there were no Neanderthals then?

Yes, and this means that the common ancestral population of Denisovans and Neanderthals left Africa more than 800 thousand years ago. And it settled, apparently, in the Middle East. And about 600 thousand years ago, another part of the population migrated from the Middle East. At the same time, the ancestors of modern man remained in Africa and developed there in their own way.
But on the other hand, Denisovans left 4–6 percent of their genetic material in the genomes of modern Melanesians. Like Neanderthals - in Europeans. So, although they did not survive to our time in their guise, they cannot be attributed to a dead-end branch in human evolution. They are in us!

Thus, in general, human evolution can be represented as follows.

At the heart of the entire chain leading to the emergence of a modern anatomical type of man in Africa and Eurasia is the ancestral basis of Homo erectus sensu lato. Apparently, the entire evolution of the sapiens line of human development is connected with this polytypic species.

The second migration wave of erectoid forms came to Central Asia, Southern Siberia and Altai about 300 thousand years ago, probably from the Middle East. From this chronological point, we trace in Denisova Cave and other locations in caves and open-air sites in Altai the continuous convergent development of stone industries, and, consequently, of the physical type of man himself.

The industry here was in no way primitive or archaic compared to the rest of Eurasia and Africa. It was focused on the environmental conditions of this particular region. In the Chinese-Malay zone, there was an evolutionary development of both industry and the anatomical type of man himself based on erectoid forms. This allows us to distinguish the modern type of man, formed in this territory, into the subspecies Homo sapiens orientalensis.

In the same way, Homo sapiens altaiensis and its material and spiritual culture developed convergently in Southern Siberia.

In turn, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis developed autochthonously in Europe. Here, however, the case is less pure, since modern people came here from Africa. There is some debate about the form of the relationship between these two subspecies, but genetics in any case shows that part of the Neanderthal genome is present in modern humans.

Thus, there is only one conclusion left to draw: Homo sapiens is a species that includes four subspecies. These are Homo sapiens africaniensis (Africa), Homo sapiens orientalensis (Southeast and East Asia), Homo sapiens Neanderthalensis (Europe) and Homo sapiens altaiensis (North and Central Asia). All archaeological, anthropological and genetic studies, from our point of view, indicate exactly this!

Alexander Tsyganov (ITAR-TASS, Moscow)

Subsections

Illustration copyright Philipp Gunz/MPI EVA Leipzig Image caption Reconstruction of the skull of the earliest known Homo sapiens, made using scans of numerous remains from Jebel Irhoud

The idea that modern humans emerged in a single “cradle of humanity” in eastern Africa some 200,000 years ago is no longer tenable, says a new study.

Fossils of five early modern humans discovered in northern Africa show that Homo sapiens appeared at least 100,000 years earlier than previously thought.

A study published in the journal Nature suggests that our species has evolved across the continent.

According to Professor Jean-Jacques Hublen from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, the scientists' discovery could lead to rewriting textbooks on the origins of our species.

“We cannot say that everything developed quickly in some kind of Eden somewhere in Africa. In our opinion, the development was more consistent, and it happened throughout the continent. So if there was a Garden of Eden, then it was all of Africa,” - he adds.

• Scientists: Our ancestors left Africa earlier than expected
• Mysterious Homo naledi - our ancestors or cousins?
• Primitive man turned out to be much younger than previously thought

Professor Hublen spoke at a press conference at the Collège de France in Paris, where he proudly showed journalists fragments of fossil human remains found at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco. These are skulls, teeth and tubular bones.

In the 1960s, at this one of the oldest sites of modern humans, remains were discovered, the age of which was estimated at 40 thousand years. They were considered an African form of Neanderthals, close relatives of Homo sapiens.

However, Professor Hublen was always troubled by this interpretation, and when he began working at the Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, he decided to reassess the fossil remains from Jebel Irhoud. More than 10 years later, he tells a very different story.

Illustration copyright Shannon McPherron/MPI EVA Leipzig Image caption Jebel Irhoud has been known for more than half a century because of the fossil remains found there

Using modern technology, he and his colleagues were able to determine that the age of the new finds ranges from 300 thousand to 350 thousand years. And the found skull is almost the same in shape as that of a modern person.

A number of significant differences are noticeable in the slightly more prominent brow ridges and smaller cerebral ventricles (cavities in the brain filled with cerebrospinal fluid).

Excavations also revealed that these ancient people used stone tools and learned to start and make fire. Therefore, they not only looked like Homo sapiens, they behaved the same.

To date, the earliest fossil remains of this type have been discovered at Omo Kibish in Ethiopia. Their age is about 195 thousand years.

"We now need to reconsider our understanding of how the first modern humans came to be," says Professor Hublen.

Before the emergence of Homo sapiens, there were many different primitive human species. Each of them looked different from the others, and each of them had their own strengths and weaknesses. And each of these species, like animals, evolved and gradually changed appearance. This happened over hundreds of thousands of years.

The previously accepted view was that Homo sapiens evolved unexpectedly from more primitive species in eastern Africa about 200,000 years ago. And by this moment, modern man had formed in the most general terms. Moreover, it was only then that the modern species was thought to have begun to spread throughout Africa, and then throughout the planet.

However, Professor Hublen's discoveries may dispel these notions.

Illustration copyright Jean-Jacques Hublin/MPI-EVA, Leipzig Image caption Fragment of the lower jaw of Homo sapiens, found in Jebel Irhoud

The age of finds in many of the excavation sites in Africa dates back to 300 thousand years. Similar tools and evidence of the use of fire have been discovered in many places. But there are no fossil remains on them.

Since most experts based their research on the assumption that our species appeared no earlier than 200 thousand years ago, it was believed that these places were inhabited by more ancient, other species of humans. However, the findings at Jebel Irhoud suggest that it was actually Homo sapiens who left their mark there.

Illustration copyright Mohammed Kamal, MPI EVA Leipzig Image caption Stone tools found by Professor Hublen's team

"This shows that there were many places across Africa where Homo sapiens emerged. We need to move away from the assumption that there was one cradle of humanity," said Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, who was not involved in the study.

According to him, there is a high probability that Homo sapiens could even exist at the same time and outside of Africa: “We have fossil remains from Israel, probably of the same age, and they have features similar to those of Homo sapiens.”

Professor Stringer says it is possible that primitive humans with smaller brains, larger faces, and strong brow ridges - nonetheless belonging to Homo sapiens - could have existed in earlier times, perhaps even half a million years ago. This is an incredible change in the until recently dominant ideas about the origin of man,

“20 years ago I said that only those who are like us can be called Homo sapiens. There was an idea that Homo sapiens suddenly appeared in Africa at a certain time and he laid the foundation for our species. But now it seems that I was wrong "Professor Stringer told the BBC.