The world’s oldest story — the tale of our human origins — is undergoing continental drift. The revelation last week that the oldest Homo sapiens fossils had been unearthed in Morocco, the latest in a string of sensational discoveries, challenges east Africa’s crown as the cradle of humankind. Rather than flowering in isolation like a prized shrub before spreading elsewhere, sapiens quite possibly popped up all over the place.

But this is about more than geography. The remains are 300,000 years old, placing our forebears on the planet at the same time as more apparently primitive humans. The linear branches of the human family tree seem to become more tangled with every bone dug from the dust.

The Moroccan haul included a partial skull, a jawbone, limb bones and teeth. Facially, these individuals looked like us. The key anatomical difference lies at the back of the skull, with an elongated, lower brain casing characteristic of more ancient species. The remains were accompanied by flint tools and lumps of charcoal.