The scientific perspectives on human origins just got a whole lot more complex.
In the last 30 days or so we have had a number of scientific papers appear that add whole new layers of complexity to the current understandings of Human Evolution and distribution of Hominid ancestors and modern humans.
These finds come from three different continents, North America, Europe and Africa.
Nearest to us in time, is the find of broken Mastodon bones and rocks in North America that now place humans in the new world more than 100 000 years earlier than previously thought.
You can get further juicy details here
Furthest from us in time is a new contender for a missing link from Apes to Hominids with the interesting nickname of "El Graeco"
Basically from a couple of teeth and a few bones there may be another contender for the split from apes to hominids happening in Southern Europe as opposed to Africa as is most commonly accepted.
It's controversial and technical but you can read more about it here or the actual paper.
My take is that there is a lot more evidence than just a couple of teeth and a few bones that is backing the "Out of Africa" position.
Finally, in the middle, we have further most recent revelations around homo naledi
Further chambers have been found that increase the weight of evidence behind the theory that this species disposed of their dead.
Also the age of the fossils from the first finds has been determined and indicate that though this species is old, with somewhat very primitive aspects, from as much as 2.5 million years ago, it survived, in parallel, all the way down to where it may as a species have interacted with early humans.
That is amazing, It adds far more complexity to the Human origins story and now nobody can be certain just what species to associate with tool creation. The picture is no longer so simple or cut and dried as it was just a month ago.
There is a great video series to watch which takes you into discovering the chambers in these caves, uncovering the fossils and all the difficulties involved. It's really fascinating...