Was North Africa The Launch Pad For Modern Human Migrations?

摘要

LAST YEAR, ARCHAEOLOGISTS EXCAVATING at the Grotte des Contrebandiers (Smuggler's Cave) on Morocco's Atlantic coast unearthed a rare prize: the skull and partial skeleton of a 7- or 8-year-old child. The fossils, dated to 108,000 years ago, appear to belong to an early member of our species, although study of them has just begun. But one feature stands out already: "It has huge teeth," says Harold Dibble of the University of Pennsylvania, co-leader of the dig team. That's a feature the child shares not only with other hominin fossils found across North Africa but also with some of the first modern humans to leave Africa.