Early Homo Sapiens

       In the article, "Earliest Evidence of Modern Human Life History in North African Early Homo sapiens" by Tanya M. Smith et al. discussed the increasing evidence of sophisticated material culture, new fossil material, and refined dating techniques, paleoanthropologists have renewed investigations of modern human origins in Africa, in particular the question of when early Homo sapiens became fully modern (Smith, M. Tanya, pg. 6128). Whereas cranial and dental features demonstrate that African Middle Pleistocene Homo underwent an anatomical transition from a more primitive form, little is known about changes in the timing of somatic development, reproductive scheduling, or lifespan (Smith, M. Tanya,
Tanya, pg. 6128). Early descriptions of the hominins from Jebel Irhoud (Morocco) emphasized similarities with Neanderthals; however, recent analyses demonstrate a number of synapomorphies shared with modern humans, establishing the presence of H. sapiens sensu stricto in North Africa 130,000-190,000 years before present (ybp) (Smith, M. Tanya, pg. 6128). The juvenile individual from Jebel Irhoud (Irhoud 3) is represented by a well preserved mandible that dates from just less than the geological ages of the earliest evidence for early H. sapiens in East Africa (Smith, M. Tanya, pg. 6128). Recent direct uranium series/ electron spin resonance dates on the specimen confirm earlier dates, suggesting an age of 160,000 to 16,000 ybp (Smith, M. Tanya, pg. 6128). This study aimed to characterize dental development and age at death in Irhoud 3, and to compare it with fossil hominins and living human populations to determine whether the modern human condition of prolonged dental development was present (Smith, M. Tanya, pg.