Two human fossils discovered nearly forty years ago in Ethiopia have been confirmed as the oldest known examples of modern-looking humans. The remains, which were discovered in Kibish, near the Omo River in southwestern Ethiopia, are now thought to be around 195,000 years old, predating previous findings also in Ethiopia, which were estimated to be between 154,000 and 160,000 years old.

The fossils were found in 1967, but experts previously disagreed over their ages. At one location Omo I was found, which includes part of a skull and skeletal bones, and another site produced Omo II which has no skeletal bones, but more of a skull.  While neither specimen has a complete face, and Omo II shows more primitive characteristics than Omo I, both are believed to be early examples of the Homo sapiens species.

The findings were reported in the Nature journal published yesterday after geologists John Fleagle of Stony Brook University in New York, Frank Brown of the University of Utah and Ian McDougall of the Australian National University, analysed the geology and tested rock samples with more modern dating techniques. The researchers determined that volcanic rock lying just below the sediment that contained the fossils was about 196,000 years old. They then found evidence that the fossil-bearing sediment was deposited soon after that time, below a layer dated at 104,000 years old.

In the report, Fleagle said the more primitive traits of Omo II may mean the two specimens came from different but overlapping Homo sapiens populations, or that they just represent natural variation within a single population.

Rick Potts, director of the Human Origins Programme at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, said he considered the case for the new fossil ages "very strong." The work suggests that "we're right on the cusp of where the genetic evidence says the origin of modern humans ... should be," he said.

Ethiopia has been the home of many exciting archaelogical and paleontological finds. Only last month the remains of nine primitive hominids, known to have lived 4.5 million years ago, were found in As Duma in northern Ethiopia, which scientists believe could throw important new light on gaps in the first chapters of early human evolution. 

ENDS