[zeestephen]

Re: “There are fossils of members of the genus Homo going back much further than 200,000 years.”

Yes, I agree.

But that's not what the article is about.

It says the genetic “Adam” for all living humans was alive 170,000 - 320,000 years ago, and that previous studies claim as much as 500,000 years ago.

All living humans are Homo Sapiens, and the Homo Sapien fossil record goes back just 200,000 years, or so I thought, anyway.

[Verginius Rufus]

The earliest Homo sapiens were descended from someone, whatever label we want to use for the immediately preceding human beings.

From the book The Neanderthals by Friedemann Schrenk and Stephanie Mu"ller (2005, English trans. 2009), the Homo sapiens of Africa are descended from Homo heidelbergensis (800,000 B.C. on), a late form of Homo erectus. In Europe Homo heidelbergensis developed into Homo neanderthalensis (or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis).