Our species evolved in Africa . But after examining the genome of a 35,000 - year - old human skull unearthed in Romania , investigator say some populations migrate back to northern Africa from western Asia during the Early Upper Paleolithic begin around 45,000 year ago . The determination were publish inScientific Reportslast week .

Anatomically modern humans dispersed out of Africa some 70,000 to 50,000 long time ago , and by around 45,000 to 40,000 old age ago , human ancestor resemblingHomo sapienstoday look in the western Eurasiatic fogy record . late analysis on the distributions of modern - Clarence Day haplogroups – a genetic population that shares a common ancestor – hint that during the Eurasiatic expanding upon , some population initiated a " back - migration " to northerly Africa . The genome of a 4,500 - class - old Ethiopian individual suggested that the journeying from Eurasia back to Africa had already take place by then . But until now , there ’s been a scarcity of even older human fossil from northerly Africa to patronize this back - migration .

The skull of a female from Peştera Muierii ( " Cave of the Old Woman " ) was discover in 1952 near Baia de Fier in Gorj County , Romania . carbon 14 geological dating puts the skull at 35,000 years old . Called PM1 , the specimen corresponds full toHomo sapiens , but does march a mix of forward-looking human and Neanderthal features .

After extracting DNA from two of the tooth , a team led by Concepcion de - la - Rua from the University of the Basque Country ( UPV / EHU ) was able to sequence her mitochondrial genome ( or mitogenome ) . They found that PM1 belongs to a haplogroup that has n’t been identify before in any mankind , ancient or advanced . They call it U6 basal * and it initiate in Eurasia .

This newly identified basal lineage has now disappear , but haplotype derive from it can be found today – mostly in northwestern African populations . The U6 lineage likely diversified during the back - migration , up until present - day U6 African lineages emerged . deduce U6 haplotype now found in Europe were in all probability due to much more recent gene stream from Africa .

PM1 in all likelihood belong to an outgrowth to southeastern Europe of the Early Upper Paleolithic migration from Asia back to Africa .

The team is now analyzing the atomic genome .