The First of our Kind (IMAGE)

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

The First of our Kind

Caption

These are two views of a composite reconstruction of the earliest known Homo sapiens fossils from Jebel Irhoud (Morocco) based on micro computed tomographic scans of multiple original fossils. Dated to 300 thousand years ago these early Homo sapiens already have a modern-looking face that falls within the variation of humans living today. However, the archaic-looking virtual imprint of the braincase (blue) indicates that brain shape, and possibly brain function, evolved within the Homo sapiens lineage.

Credit

Philipp Gunz, MPI EVA Leipzig (License: CC-BY-SA 2.0)

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