A team of researchers has described 18 hominin fossils recovered from Drimolen Cave in South Africa, including an adult Homo erectus skull fragment dated to roughly 2 million years ago. The new date places the species in southern Africa about 200,000 years earlier than previous fossil evidence suggested.
The find challenges the long-held view that Homo erectus first appeared in East Africa before spreading south. Instead, the Drimolen fossils indicate that early Homo erectus populations were already present in southern Africa near the start of the Pleistocene, suggesting a more complex and geographically broader origin for the species.
Because the study is based on a single site and a limited number of fossils, researchers caution that the exact timing and route of early Homo erectus dispersal remain uncertain. Still, the Drimolen material adds a significant data point to the emerging picture of early human evolution in Africa.