The research “Early hominins from Morocco, precursors of the Homo sapiens lineage” was recently published in an article in the Journal Naturewhere the analysis of new hominin fossils found at the Thomas Quarry I site (Casablanca, Morocco) is presented.
The fossils are dated with great certainty at 773,000 years old, thanks to a high-resolution magnetostratigraphic record.
This work stands out for providing relevant information about the last common ancestor of Homo sapiens, the Neanderthals and the Denisovans, as well as conclusive evidence of an African lineage of our species.
The study on the origin of humanity has always captured the attention and interest of science. Paleogenetic evidence suggests that the last common ancestor of current humans – the Neanderthals and the Denisovans – lived between 765,000 and 550,000 years ago (ka), but both the geographic distribution and morphology of these ancestral humans remain uncertain.
Homo antecessor fossils from the TD6 site of Gran Dolina, in Atapuerca (Spain), dated between 950 ka and 770 ka, have been proposed as possible candidates for this ancestral population. However, “all Homo sapiens fossils dated with certainty before 90 ka were found in Africa or at the gateway to Asia,” he points out. Kornelius Kupczik, academic at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chile.
Recently, an international team made up of Professor Kupczik published the article “Early hominins from Morocco, precursors of the lineage of A wise man”, where they describe new hominin fossils from the Grotte à Hominidés at Thomas Quarry I (ThI-GH) in Casablanca, Morocco, dated to around 773 ka. These fossils are similar in age to Homo antecessor, but are morphologically distinct, displaying a combination of primitive features and derived characteristics reminiscent of Homo antecessor. A wise man later and to the archaic Eurasian hominids.
ThI-GH hominins provide information about African populations prior to the first individuals of A wise man discovered at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco, dating back approximately 315,000 years, and providing strong evidence of an ancient African lineage of humanity. These fossils offer clues to the last common ancestor shared with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Hominid Grotto Site
The site of the Hominid Grotto at the Thomas Quarry (Thomas Quarry I) in Casablanca, Morocco, It is known thanks to the discovery in 1969 of a human hemimandible (ThI-GH-1). Subsequent systematic investigations at ThI-GH that were carried out between 1994 and 2015, resulted in thousands of faunal remains, some 300 stone artifacts made of quartzite and flint related to an Acheulean industry and several additional hominin fossils in an indisputable stratigraphic context, thanks to controlled modern excavations.
In the aforementioned article published on January 8, 2026, several of these new hominin fossils are presented. Hominin fossils dating from the transition between the Early and Middle Pleistocene are extremely unique in Africa, Europe and Asia, making the remains from the Hominid Grotto an important contribution to the human fossil record.
An investigation with alliance and international impact
The study of the Hominid Grotto in the Thomas Quarry (Thomas Quarry I) in Casablanca, Morocco, is part of the Moroccan-French program “Prehistory of Casablanca”, directed and supported by the National Institute of Archaeological and Heritage Sciences (INSAP) of the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication/Department of Culture of the Kingdom of Morocco and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, within the framework of the Archaeological Mission Littoral-Morocco.
From the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Chile, Professor Kornelius Kupczik of the Department of Anthropology of the University of Chile, has contributed with one of the analyzes on the dental morphology of these fossils.
As an expert in the analysis of fossil teeth of hominids (the biological family that encompasses all modern and extinct great apes: humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans, in addition to their direct ancestors), the Professor Kupczik was responsible for studying the dental roots of two of the jaws found at the site. “This allowed me to virtually extract the teeth from their bone sockets in the jaw and compare their morphology with that of other fossil hominids from Africa and Eurasia. The results clearly show that the ThI-GH fossils are similar to those of the A wise man and Neanderthals, but different from The man stood up”, he reports.
In this research and article, “the high-resolution magnetostratigraphy technique was chosen because alternative dating methods (Stimulated Optical Luminescence and Electron Spin Resonance) presented significant limitations and the nature of the sedimentary record allowed for superior precision, through the analysis of the Earth’s magnetic field,” explains Kornelius.
Before 2016, excavations and studies were carried out that were funded by the University of Bordeaux (France), the Aquitaine Region (France) through the Origines projects, the National Museum of Natural History in Paris (France) and the Department of Human Evolution of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Germany).
Recent research after that year has been supported by the Archimède Laboratory of Excellence—IA Program ANR-11-LABX-0032-01, through the Origines project, and by the European Research Council (ERC) within the framework of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 819960).
The magnetostratigraphic analyzes are supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, through the project “Department of Excellence 2018-2022”, awarded to the Department of Earth Sciences “A. Desio” of the University of Milan.