I’ve been baffled by the spread of a non-story over the past couple days, about the supposed discovery of the oldest fossil of our species, doubling the age of our species from 200,000 years to 400,000 years and overturning the generally-accepted idea that Homo sapiens evolved in Africa.

Here’s a typical report, from the Associated Press:

Got it?

The hook for this story is the publication of a paper in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Did the reporters who hyped this story actually look at the paper itself? I have to wonder.

Let me quote a few pieces from it. You tell me where the scientists actually claim they have identified 400,000 year fossil of Homo sapiens.

Here is the abstract