Homo sapiens, our own species, evolved in Africa sometime between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago. Anthropologists are pretty confident in that estimate, based on fossil, genetic and archaeological evidence.
Then what happened? How modern humans spread throughout the rest of the world is one of the most active areas of research in human evolutionary studies.
The earliest fossil evidence of our species outside of Africa is found at a site called Misliya cave, in the Middle East, and dates to around 185,000 years ago. While additional H. sapiens fossils are found from around 120,000 years ago in this same region, it seems modern humans reached Europe much later.
Understanding when our species migrated out of Africa can reveal insights into present-day biological, behavioral and cultural diversity. While we Homo sapiens are the only humans alive today, our species coexisted with different human lineages in the past, including Neandertals and Denisovans. Scientists are interested in when and where H. sapiens encountered these other kinds of humans.
Our recent reanalysis of a fossil jawbone from a Spanish site called Banyoles is raising new questions about when our species may have migrated to Europe.
Homo sapiens fossils found in Europe
The first documented discoveries of human fossils were in Europe, just before Darwin’s 1859 publication of “The Origin of Species.” Ideas of evolution were being actively debated within European universities and scientific societies.
Many of the earliest fossil findings were Neandertals, a species that evolved in Europe by 250,000 years ago and became extinct around 40,000 years ago. They are also our closest evolutionary relatives and, because of ancient interbreeding, the genomes of people today include Neandertal DNA. Because of their early historical presence, Neandertal fossils had a big influence on how early researchers thought about human evolution.
The first fossil evidence of Neandertals was found in 1856 during quarrying activities from the Neander Tal (Neander Valley) in Germany. Paleontologists took the hint and started to search for human fossils in other caves and exposed areas that preserved ancient sediments.
More than a decade later, in 1868, paleontologists uncovered H. sapiens fossils at the site of Cro-Magnon in southern France. For much of the 20th century, the 30,000-year-old Cro-Magnon fossils represented the earliest fossil evidence of our species in Europe.
More recently, evidence for an earlier H. sapiens presence in Europe has come from two sites in Eastern Europe, including a partial skull from Zlatý kůň Cave in Czechia dating to 45,000 years ago, as well as more fragmentary remains from Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria dating to around 44,000 years ago. Ancient DNA analysis has confirmed that the fossils from these sites represent H. sapiens. Additional, potentially earlier, evidence is represented by a single tooth dating to 54,000 years ago from the Grotte Mandrin…
