A paper published yesterday (January 7, 2026) in Nature investigated some fossil remains found in a site (Grotte à Hominidés) at a quarry in Morocco, not far from the city of Casablanca. They belong to hominds who appear to be "basal" to modern H. sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans. The authors date them to around 773,000 years ago and state that these remains reinforce "the case for an African rather than a Eurasian ancestry of H. sapiens."
This is the paper: Hublin, JJ., Lef&egravE;vre, D., Perini, S. et al. Early hominins from Morocco basal to the Homo sapiens lineage. Nature (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09914-y
This date is very close to the date when modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans split and went different ways, which is believed to have taken place between 550 and 765 thousand years ago.
The paper also suggests that they may be related to the Homo antecessor (TD6) whose remains have been found in Atapuerca, Spain, and whose remains have been dated to 950-770 ka. Though the Morccan remains and the Atapuerca fossils are similar, they also differ.
The Morocco fossils, named ThI-GH (from Thomas Quarry I, Grotte à Hominidés) combine modern and primitive traits. The site, excavated between 1994 and 2015 has produced Acheulean tools (typical of H. erectus), more primitive than the stone knapping techniques developed later by the Neanderthals.
The age of the remains
The authors analyzed the sediments in which the fossils were found, employing magnetostratigraphic tecniques that compare the sediments with the record of polarity reversals of the Earth's magnetic field, and found that "our analysis indicates hominin ages younger than 990 ka (top of Jaramillo) and close to the MBT at a nominal age of 773 ± 4 ka."
However, other tests find a younger age: "Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, performed in unit SU4 on cemented sands provided age estimates of 420 ± 34 ka and 391 ± 32 ka, of the same order as the ages obtained from OH2 to OH5. OSL ages appear to be inconsistent with the evidence that these formations belong to at least three glacioeustatic cycles and, for this reason, can be disputed. Combined electron-spin resonance (ESR) and U-series dating methods applied directly to an isolated hominin tooth from SU4 resulted in an estimated age of 501 ka +94 ka/−76 ka. The same method yielded ages ranging from 591 ± 103 ka to 538 ± 52 ka on three well-preserved herbivore teeth from SU4...
Below I quote the paper's relevant parts with my comments in brackets.
"These hominins cannot be directly compared with later specimens, such as the Kabwe or Bodo skulls, which have been tentatively assigned to H. heidelbergensis. Not only do these specimens differ substantially in age, but they also lack preservation of comparable anatomical parts. Our analysis suggests that the ThI-GH hominins probably belong to an evolved form of H. erectus sensu lato in North Africa, much as H. antecessor does in Europe.
[These hominins appear to be "evolved" Homo erectus - Homo antecessor group!]
However, the ThI-GH hominins offer an interesting contrast to both the Spanish fossils and the considerably older fossils from Tighennif (Algeria), which are likely to date to at least 1,000 ka. The fossil mandibles from Tighennif appear more primitive, larger and more robust than both the European H. antecessor and the northwest African ThI-GH fossils. The Spanish and Moroccan fossils share several features in their teeth and mandibles. Both groups display a combination of archaic and derived features reminiscent of later hominins. These similarities revive the question of possible exchanges across the Strait of Gibraltar during the EP. Nevertheless, the ThI-GH hominins are different from the TD6 hominins.
[Since the Strait of Gibraltar was breached by the sea during the Zanclean Flood about 5.33 million years ago (that eliminated the dry-land bridge between Europe and Africa as the Mediterranean basin filled up with water from the Atlantic, the "exchanges across the Strait of Gibraltar during the EP" or Early Pleistocene means that these people built watercraft to navigate the Strait of Gibraltar!]
The origin of H. sapiens, and the precise timing of the divergence of its ancestral populations from the Neanderthal–Denisovan clade, remain subjects of debate. Anatomical evidence has at times been used to argue for a split predating 800 ka and even for an alternative Asian ancestry of our species. In this context, the Maghreb fossils are key to understanding the diversification of MP [Mid Pleistocene] hominins. The morphology of the ThI-GH hominins places them close to the split between the African and Eurasian lineages. Our findings not only align with the phylogenetic structure inferred from palaeogenetic data but also highlight the Maghreb as a pivotal region for understanding the emergence of our species, reinforcing the case for an African rather than a Eurasian ancestry of H. sapiens."
The exchange across Gibraltar could be considered as an Out of Africa, for Homo erectus who entered Europe and evolved into Homo antecessor there, or probably a route into Africa from early hominins who (like those found in Dmanisi and the Caucasus) peopled Europe and returned via Spain to Africa across Gibraltar.
The authors seem intent on proving an African origin for "our species" and mention this twice in their paper. I am not so certain this paper suggestss an African origin for modern humans, it only describes hominins with an archaic-modern mossaic of features similar to those of H. erectus and H. antecessor, both of which are Eurasian!
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall ©
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