The first truly modern humans seem to have appeared between 300,000, and 200,000 years ago in East Africa. In paleontology, 200,000 years are a "short" time. So, scientists speak of a "recent single origin" of humans. These early humans later moved out from Africa. By about 90,000 years ago they had moved into Eurasia. This was the area where Neanderthals, "Homo neanderthalensis", had been living for a long time (at least 350,000 years).