[Previous entry: "Brightest Galactic Flash Ever Detected Hits Earth"] [Next entry: "Sex Assaults on Military Reported Abroad"]

02/18/2005:

"Homo Sapiens Gets a Lot Older in a New Analysis of Fossils"

Scientists have determined that human fossils found in Ethiopia in 1967 are 195,000 years old, 65,000 years older than first thought. The revised date, they said, makes the skulls and bones the earliest known remains of modern Homo sapiens.

The research reinforces the theories of an African origin for modern humans, and the earlier date gives the species more time to have evolved the cultural attributes that probably supported its spread out of Africa to Asia and Europe. The new date appears to be near the early boundary for modern human emergence, as suggested in recent genetic studies.
Full Article: nytimes.com