Fossil Skull connects continents

So far any trace was missing of those modern humans (Homo sapiens) who took their way from Africa to the North, arriving in Europe around 45,000 years ago and replacing all other forms of hominins. Now a finding from the Manot-Cave in northern Israel is closing this gap in our knowledge about our own origin. The approximately 55,000 year old remains of a braincase were investigated with state-of-the-art methods by Israeli scientists and anthropologists from the University of Vienna and the Max Planck Institute Leipzig. It turned out that the finding fits not only chronologically exactly into the so far unknown phase of migration out of Africa, but it also closes perfectly the gap in terms of morphology. Manot also changes our view with regard to our potential interbreeding scenario with Neanderthals. Manot is a karstic cave in the North of Israel, very close to the Lebanese border. The first excavations began in 2010 and are continued up to day. Countless archaeological objects were discovered which document the peopling of the cave since more than 100,000 years. Around 30,000 years ago, the roof of the cave collapsed and sealed the archaeological layers until the 21st century. Beside stone tools and animal bones, some few human remains were preserved. The most spectacular finding was made on an elevated shelf within a small chamber of the cave: a very well preserved "calotte", hence the upper part of a braincase. The facial bones which contain a lot of diagnostic traits for paleoanthropologists, were, however, missing. "Virtual Anthropology" allows identification