We have a fossil closer to our split with Neanderthals and Denisovans

A recent discovery of hominin fossils dating back 773,000 years in Morocco could provide crucial insights into the timeline of our species' divergence from Neanderthals and Denisovans. Anthropologists have meticulously analyzed a collection of jawbones, teeth, and vertebrae, which belong to early human ancestors that likely existed around the same time as our last common ancestor with these relatives. The fossils were unearthed in a cave near Casablanca, known as Grotte à Hominidés. Among the findings are an adult's lower jawbone, a partial jaw from another adult, and remains from a young child, along with several teeth and vertebral fragments. Notably, a femur discovered in the same sediment layer bears evidence of gnaw marks made by carnivorous animals, hinting at a possible explanation for how these remains came to be in the cave. These fossils were found in a sedimentary layer that spans thousands of years, coinciding with a significant geological event—the reversal of Earth's magnetic field, which occurred approximately 773,000 years ago. While this time frame is not precise enough to determine if the individuals were contemporaries, it does place them at a pivotal junction in the narrative of human evolution. Historically, around 1.8 million years ago, the species known as Homo erectus emerged in Africa and began to spread across the globe, excluding the Americas and Australia. About a million years later, different groups of Homo erectus began evolving along separate lines, likely giving rise to various species, including Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis, in Southeast Asia's islands.