Ancestor skulls rule out Neanderthals

Scientists have unearthed the oldest known fossil remains of modern humans at the site of an ancient lake in Ethiopia. The three skulls – dating back between 154,000 and 160,000 years – belonged to a race of people who may be the ancestors of everyone living today.

Professor Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, said the finds were ‘some of the most significant discoveries of early Homo sapiens so far’.

The fossils provide strong support for the ‘Out of Africa’ hypothesis which holds that modern humans first arose in Africa and then spread throughout Europe and Asia.

The skulls – two of adults and one child’s skull – were found in 1997 near the village of Herto – 140 miles north-east of Addis Ababa.

Professor F. Clark Howell, from the University of California at Berkeley, who co-led the study, said: ‘The Herto fossils demonstrate conclusively that there was never a Neanderthal stage in human evolution.’