http://www.sciencealert.com/new-fossil-find-pushes-back-the-origins-of-homo-sapiens-by-100-000-years Researchers have used new dating techniques to confirm that human fossils unearthed in Morocco are roughly 300,000 years old. The landmark discovery is forcing a rethink not only on how the first populations of Homo sapiens developed at least 100,000 years earlier than previously thought, but how these early human populations spread themselves across the continent before setting off to conquer the world. "We used to think that there was a cradle of mankind 200 thousand years ago in east Africa, but our new data reveal that Homo sapiens spread across the entire African continent around 300 thousand years ago," says palaeoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin from the Max Planck Institute.