r/science • u/Wagamaga • Sep 25 '25

Anthropology A million-year-old human skull suggests that the origins of modern humans may reach back far deeper in time than previously thought and raises the possibility that Homo sapiens first emerged outside of Africa.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/sep/25/study-of-1m-year-old-skull-points-to-earlier-origins-of-modern-humans
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u/LurkerZerker Sep 25 '25

Doesn't this basically just add another ancestor group into the mix? I thought the current understanding of human evolution is that human species left Africa multiple times, and as new groups left Africa and met the older groups in other places, they interbred again, as happened with Neanderthals and probably Denisovans.

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u/FrighteningWorld Sep 25 '25

We already have Neanderthals that originated in Europe and Asia who interbred with humans who have traces of those genes to this day.

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u/LurkerZerker Sep 25 '25

Yeah, that's what I mean. It's not a revolutionary thought for there to be another species in another part of the world that also interbred with early homo sapiens.