Ella Al-Shamahi

Basically, we're an African species.

And for those who are kind of like, hold on a second.

So how exactly are we thinking we're related?

The basic thinking is that there was some kind of ancestral species.

We used to call them Heidelbergensis.

Now we don't even know if that's a species or not.

But anyway, so let's just say Species X, for example, right?

Species X started in Africa, we think.

Then some of them broke off and went into Asia and Europe and gave birth to, eventually with time, the Neanderthals.

The ones that stayed behind eventually became us.

That's the broad thinking.

Now, we were in Africa.

We started in Africa.

Well, up until before COVID, I think it was, we thought it was 200,000 years.

Then they found the incredible Jabal al-Hud fossil in... Well, they didn't find it.

They just started dating things more accurately.

in Morocco.

And then they were like, oh, hold on a second.

We actually think we're 300,000 years old.

And now, obviously, if you're to accept Chris Stringer and colleagues' interpretation of things, we're even older than that.