There is a continuous human evolution since at least one million years in this north African region, contrary to Europe where this evolution is interrupted, Coppens told the press following an audience granted to him by HM King Mohammed VI at the Royal palace in Agadir.

    He noted that Europe was isolated from the rest of the world by the ice age and witnessed the development of a particular human form known as the "Neanderthal man".      
    Coppens said he handed HM the King three human jaw fragments dug up in Sidi Abderrahmane quarry, Casablanca, adding that the human fossils are 500,000-year-old at least.

    These fossils are of paramount importance for humankind because they belong to the early homo-sapiens, he said.