Omo Remains: Oldest Modern Human Fossils First Discovered in 1967 Could Actually Be 30,000 Years Older

New research recently revealed that the oldest modern human fossils first discovered in Ethiopia at the Omo Kibish Site in 1967 were identified in 2005 to be at least 195,000 years old.

Specifically, a report by The Nation said that the new study has pushed back the said discovery's date from East Africa by nearly 40,000 years.

The fossils, labeled as the "Omo remains," where a combination of skull and bone remains and had been proven difficult to date.

Geologists who use stratigraphic analysis, in which both vertical and lateral associations of different rock formations of rocks are examined, were able to identify the minimum age of the said fossils. Nonetheless, a more exact dating evaded the scientific community for 50 years following their discovery.

Refining the Omo Remnants' Date

The key hint to refining the Omo remnants' date was the analysis of a fine layer of ash that was discovered surrounding the fossils.

Describing the layer of ash, the main author of the study, Celine Vidal said, at the same time, that was almost impossible since the wash was very fine, nearly akin to flour.

New methods, as well as the use of historic volcanic events, enabled the study to associate the ash to a major eruption of a volcano known as "Shala."

Essentially, the new research showed the layer of ash to be approximately 233,000 years old with a margin of error of 20,000 years.

Are the Omo Fossils the Oldest Human Remnants?

This report also said that the new date does not make fossils of the Omo the oldest human remnants. Remnants discovered in Morocco in 2017 were dated around 300,000 years old and substantially changed the timetable or sequence of events of the migration of humanity out of Africa.

Meanwhile, co-author of the study Aurelien Mounier believes the new dating has restored conventional theory around the evolution and migration of humans.

The co-author explained, Omo is the lone fossil that comprises all the morphological traits of modern man. Mounier added that while the migration of humanity out of the East African region also known as the "cradle of mankind" may have taken place earlier compared to what was previously believed, this new dating of the Omo fossils, as well as their modern traits lend credibility to conventional notions of human migrations and evolution, as indicated in a similar Urduwire News report.

2017 Fossil Discovery

In 2017, the New York Times reported a discovery of Fossils in Morocco, which the distinguished news site described as "the oldest known remains of Homo sapiens."

The NYT also specified in this report that the fossil find rewrites the story of the origins of mankind, not to mention that it also suggested that the human species evolved in several locations throughout the African continent.

Describing the discovery, paleontologists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany Philipp Gunz said humans did not evolve from a "single cradle of mankind" anywhere in East Africa.

Gunz, who's also a co-author of two other studies than on the fossils that were published in the Nature Journal added, humans, evolved on the African continent.

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