Mankind's birthday put back 35,000 years

LONDON - The oldest humans just got older - by 35,000 years.

Two homo sapiens skulls, originally dated as 130,000 years old when they were unearthed in Kibish, Ethiopia, in 1967, and later put back to 160,000, have now been declared 195,000 years old based on geological evidence.

"It pushes back the beginning of the anatomically modern humans," said geologist Frank Brown, dean of the University of Utah's College of Mines and Earth Sciences and co-author of a study into the skulls, known as Omo I and Omo II. New York's Stony Brook University and the Australian National University also took part in the study, which was published in the science journal Nature.

After looking at volcanic ash where the skulls were found along the Omo River, the researchers dated the remains as the same age, making them by far the oldest humans.

"On this basis we suggest that hominid fossils Omo I and Omo II are relatively securely dated to 195,000 years old, plus or minus 5000 years ... making Omo I and Omo II the oldest anatomically modern human fossils yet recovered."

The new dating firmly underpins the "out of Africa" theory of the origin of modern humans.

Brown said the redating was important culturally because it pushed back the known dawn of mankind, the record of which in most cases starts 50,000 years ago.

"Which would mean 150,000 years of homo sapiens without cultural stuff such as evidence of eating fish, of harpoons, anything to do with music, needles, even tools," he said.

The skulls were found by a team led by renowned fossil-hunter Richard Leakey.

- REUTERS