\n \u201cIt is extremely exciting to have fossils right in the middle of this gap,\u201d added Hublin, a paleoanthropologist at Coll\u00e8ge de France and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.\n <\/p>\n
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\n CT scans and analysis of the fossils\u2019 features revealed an ancestor who had a \u201cmosaic\u201d of primitive and more evolved features. For example, it didn\u2019t have a defined chin, unlike Homo sapiens, but the teeth and other dental features were quite similar to those of our own species and Neanderthals.\n <\/p>\n
\n Most of the fossils were unearthed in 2008 and 2009, but they were definitively dated much more recently, Hublin noted, using a technique known as paleomagnetism, which detects the geological signature of a reversal of the Earth\u2019s magnetic field in certain minerals with magnetic properties.\n <\/p>\n
\n The strength of Earth\u2019s magnetic field fluctuates, and, at times, the magnetic north and south poles have flipped. The research team found that the layer where the fossils were found coincided with the Matuyama-Brunhes transition, a well-known chronological marker that dates to 773,000 years ago and was the most recent major polar reversal.\n <\/p>\n
\n Study coauthor Serena Perini, a geologist and paleomagnetist <\/strong>at Italy\u2019s University of Milan, said in a statement the technique allowed the team to \u201canchor the presence of these hominins within an exceptionally precise chronological framework.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The world\u2019s earliest known Homo sapiens remains<\/a> have also been found in Morocco at a site known as Jebel Irhoud, and they date to 400,000 years ago. However, Hublin said it would be incorrect to regard this region as the exact place our species emerged. More likely, it was a result of geological conditions in the region that allow fossils to be preserved particularly well.\n <\/p>\n \n Hublin noted that the cave these individuals called home would have been a dangerous place. The leg bone was covered in bite marks from a predator, most likely a hyena, and there was much evidence that carnivores occupied the cave.\n <\/p>\n \n The newly described fossils are important because they shed light on the ancestral species of the three types of human that lived most recently: Neanderthals, Denisovans and, of course, Homo sapiens, the only surviving human species.\n <\/p>\n \n Neanderthals and Denisovans are thought to have gone extinct around 40,000 years ago, although the timing is less clear for Denisovans, a shadowy population first identified<\/a> in 2010.\n <\/p>\n \n The last common ancestor of the three human groups \u2014 sometimes dubbed ancestor x \u2014 is an \u201celusive figure,\u201d according to Antonio Rosas, a researcher in the department of paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cDebate over which fossils might represent this crucial evolutionary node persists, and correctly identifying this ancestor is essential for understanding the directions of subsequent evolutionary change,\u201d Rosas, who was not involved in the study, wrote in a commentary published alongside the new research.\n <\/p>\n![\"Four](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/north-african-mandibles-lateral.jpg\")
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