A version of homo sapiens, us, has been discovered in Morocco but although recognisable has a slightly different braincase. This has been dated to 300,000 BCE. Nevertheless, recent genetics has placed our appearance in Africa to two genetic spurts in 600,000 BCE and 200,000 BCE. https://www.livescience.com/human-genome-unique-neanderthals.html?utm_source=notification
Only 1.5 of our genome has been found to be separate from other creatures and forms of humankind such as Neanderthals, and that is related to brain development.
Development has been traced to all over Africa, not to one specific region in Africa suggesting again horizontal development through interrelationships between human-type species. Were the spurts accidental, a consequence of interdevelopment that over time created a similar final product?
Maybe the cutoff for modern humans should be when homo sapiens absorbed Neanderthals into their genetic makeup, so much later than 200 000 years
Halil Halil,
It cannot work in that fashion, as Africans have no Neanderthal genes. Asian peoples have Denisovan genes so the most representative peoples are those from Africa.
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