For many decades now, anthropologists have been convinced that Homo sapiens (modern humans) evolved in the East African Rift Valley about 140-160,000 years ago and then spread across the Continent. Eventually, about 80,000 years ago, some began to leave Africa and colonized other parts of the globe.
Within the past decade, however, a fossilized mandible and skull fragments from Homo sapiens were unearthed in Morocco and recent studies reveal that they date back 300,000 years (per a report in the New York Times); this suggests that our species appeared much earlier than previously thought and likely evolved in multiple areas of Africa. In other words, mankind may be twice as old as prior evidence had indicated.
Such is the nature of science; it is based on physical evidence but remains open to new discoveries that may alter earlier assumptions and conclusions. By contrast, Evangelical Christians will remain convinced that the Earth is only 4000 years old and that the science-based evidence of evolution (human and otherwise) is but an illusion.
