Experts stated in research that ancient human fossils known as Omo I, which was uncovered in Ethiopia might be as old as 2,30,000 years. The bones are one of the oldest specimens of Homo sapiens fossils and were discovered in the late 1960s. Previous research had dated them to be less than 2,000 years old.
However, according to new research from the University of Cambridge, the bones likely predate a huge volcanic explosion in the area that occurred 2,30,000 years ago. The scientists used the chemical fingerprints of volcanic ash layers located above and below the silt where the fossils were discovered to date the strata.
As per experts, the study is far from over. Archaeologists reported the finding of the world’s earliest Homo sapiens remains in 2017. It was a 3,00,000-year-old skull discovered in Morocco’s Jebel Irhoud. Scientists have been attempting to date the oldest fossils in eastern Africa for decades. In southern Ethiopia, the Omo I remains were discovered in the Omo Kibish Formation. There is a lot of volcanic activity in this area. It is also a great place to look for early human artefacts.
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‘Using these methods, the generally accepted age of the Omo fossils is under 200,000 years, but there’s been a lot of uncertainty around this date. The fossils were found in a sequence, below a thick layer of volcanic ash that nobody had managed to date because the ash is too fine-grained’, said Dr Céline Vidal from Cambridge’s Department of Geography, the lead author of the paper.
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