modern San Bushmen humans expanded throughout Africa before the modern dispersal out of Africa

  We found that the human niche began to expand
substantially from 70 ka and that this expansion was driven by humans increasing
their use of diverse habitat types, from forests to arid deserts. Thus, humans dispersing
out of Africa after 50 ka were equipped with a distinctive ecological flexibility among
hominins as they encountered climatically challenging habitats, providing a key
mechanism for their adaptive success.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09154-0.pdf 

 Our results show that the human niche progressively expanded to
include more habitat types beginning around 70 ka and that this expan-
sion peaked at about 50 ka, coinciding with successful dispersals out of
Africa. A second expansion was observed starting approximately 29 ka;

 The expansion of
the human niche beginning around 70 ka in Africa is driven by a gradual
increase in human preference for forest and desert biomes, allowing
them to expand into regions that were previously rarely populated:
(1) forests of West Africa, (2) forests of Central Africa and, eventu-
ally, (3) arid Saharan regions and semi-arid Sahelian regions of North
Africa. This increased ability to adapt to new habitats, ranging from
the extremes of equatorial forests to arid deserts, would have allowed............

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24779-1.pdf 

 However, archaeological findings in Saudi Arabia
dated to at least 85k years ago5, in Israel to at least 100k years
ago6 and possibly as old as 194k years ago7 (challenged8 and
defended9), and in Greece to 210k years ago10 hint at previous
excursions from Africa, which might have reached China at least
80k, possibly 120k years ago11 (challenged12 and defended13).
These, or other previous waves, might have also left a small
genetic contribution (~1%) found in modern inhabitants of
Papua New Guinea14. Further evidence for a possibly earlier exit
comes from traces of geneflow from Homo sapiens into Nean-
derthal, genetically dated to before 130k years ago15,16, and which
could be as old as 250k years ago17. While more work is needed to
confirm hints of Middle Pleistocene humans in Eurasia, current
evidence strongly suggests that Homo sapiens had repeated per-
iods when they were able to leave Africa, although the number,
timings, routes, and fates of such early waves is unclear.

...............