TIME

Modern Humans

≈ 300,000 years ago

Cast of the Jebel Irhoud 1 skull, a long, low cranium with a heavy brow ridge, in a museum display.

Early HumanityModern Humans

Our species emerges in Africa.

Our species emerged in Africa and later spread across the world. Homo sapiens is the only surviving human species.

Fossils from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco, about 315,000 years old, are among the oldest attributed to our species. The date is a fossil estimate.

300,000 years ago, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.

Era
Early Humanity
Period
≈ 300,000 years ago
Edition
1/1
Status
Not Released
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Background artwork

Cinematic background showing people looking over a valley at sunrise. An illustration generated with an AI image tool for TIME. It is an artistic depiction, not a photograph or a record of the moment. The figures are imagined.