Found: Skulls of the first modern humans

THE oldest known fossils of modern humans have been found, scientists said today. The skulls of two adults – one man and one too badly fragmented to discern the sex – and one child, have been dated at 160,000 years old.

They were probably among the first modern humans to walk the planet and are being hailed as some of the most significant human fossils ever discovered.

Approximately 60,000 years earlier than any remains of modern man previously found, they show a mix of “fully fledged” modern features – notably a high forehead and lack of brow ridges – with more primitive characteristics from earlier species of human. They are the final link in the chain of human species that led from ape, around six million years ago, to ourselves, and differ only very slightly from humans now alive.

They appear to prove the accuracy of recent genetic studies which suggest that the first modern human, a woman nicknamed Eve, lived somewhere in Africa at precisely this period.

They lay partly exposed to the elements near the village of Herto in the Afar region of Eastern Ethiopia, at the top of a six million- year sequence of fossils which provide an astonishing progression of human evolution, according to papers in this week’s Nature journal.

They have been assigned to a new subspecies that the researchers have named Homo sapiens idaltu, to differentiate them from contemporary humans, Homo sapiens sapiens.

Idaltu means “elder” in the Afar language.

They give final confirmation that our species did not evolve from Neanderthals, which arose about 300,000 years ago and died out around 30,000 years ago, but were a different branch on the evolutionary tree. These fossils predate most of the known Neanderthal remains.

They also appear to clinch the theory that modern humans evolved in Africa before spreading out of the continent to Asia and Europe. The skulls also show signs of ritual treatment after death.

Cut marks from stone tools and a remarkable polishing effect indicate that the brains had been removed, and the skulls extensively handled, probably over a very long period. It is possible that they were carried around the country as relics.

The team who found them consists of more than 45 scientists from 14 countries. It is led by Professor Tim White of the University of California, Berkeley, and by Berhane Asfaw of the Rift Valley Research Service in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and fellow Ethiopian Giday WoldeGabriel of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, said: “They are probably the most significant finds of early Homo sapiens so far.”

“The fact that they date close to some genetic estimates for the age of our species only adds to their importance in tracing our African origins.”

The team also unearthed skull pieces and teeth from seven other hominid individuals, hippopotamus bones with cut marks, and more than 640 tools, including hand axes. They show that modern humans were using tools for butchering large mammals.

The most complete of the three skulls is probably that of a male aged between his late twenties and mid-thirties. It is slightly larger than the largest modern man, with a bigger brain, but has the less prominent brow ridges and high forehead that distinguish homo sapiens from earlier species.

Although the lower jaw was missing, the upper teeth were heavily worn, indicating a harsh diet.

The Herto site was discovered in 1997 and some of the remains have taken years to analyse.