Australian-led team proves that as a species we are older than we thought

The Guardian, 3 April 2020:

Homo erectus cranium outline. The earliest known skull of Homo erectus has been unearthed by an Australian-led team in South Africa. 
Photograph: Supplied by La Trobe University

The earliest known skull of Homo erectus has been unearthed by an Australian-led team of researchers who have dated the fossil at two million years old, showing the first of our ancestors existed up to 200,000 years earlier than previously thought.

The lead researcher Prof Andy Herries said the skull was pieced together from more than 150 fragments uncovered at the Drimolen Main Quarry, located about 40km north of Johannesburg in South Africa. It was likely aged between two and three years old when it died.

Herries, a geochronologist and head of archaeology at Melbourne’s La Trobe University, said he “could not stress how rare it is” to find find enough fragments to piece together an intact brain case, especially given juvenile skulls are thin and fragile.

“At this age they are so susceptible to damage,” he said. “It’s so exciting, because our fascination with human evolution is because it’s the story of us, and when we go back this far with a discovery like this, it’s the story of every person living on the planet.

“The group this two or three-year-old was a part of could have been the origin of everyone alive today.”

He said while there was a lot of disagreement of opinion in the field of archaeology and human evolution, one of the reasons Homo erectus is significant is because everyone agreed: “This is the beginning of us, this is the beginning of our genus.”...... 

Herries said the finding was particularly special because in 1924 the Australian anatomist Raymond Dart identified the the first fossil ever found of Australopithecus africanus, an extinct hominin closely related to humans and discovered in South Africa. 

“Nobody believed him at the time because they thought the origin of humans would be in Europe,” Herries said. “And now, 100 years later, DMH 134 will go sit in the same room as that child he identified, further proving what he found. It’s a testament to the work of Australians on human evolution.”.....