Scientists have recently determined that humans were present in all parts of Africa as early as 300-thousand years ago.
Is this segment of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Bob Franciscus, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Iowa.
Franciscus says that "the emergence may have been what they refer to as a 'pan-African phenomenon.'" He says that before this find, we really didn’t know what was happening at that time or where our species was in its evolution. This new evidence is a result of both improved dating of fossils and an understanding the characteristics of the fossils themselves.