The new dates of the paleontological sites force to frequently rewrite some aspects of the history of human evolution.
This Wednesday, changes what we know about Omo 1, one of the most important fossils of our species-Homo Sapiens-, which has turned out to be older than it had been estimated so far.
Thirty-six thousand years, specifically.
The Skull named Omo I belongs to one of the two Kibish men found in 1967 in southern Ethiopia by the paleontologist Richard Leaky.
Remains of two individuals were found (Omo I and Oom II) in the rock formation of Kibish, in the valley of the Omo River, hence his name.
So far it was thought that the individual known as Omo I had lived about 197,000 years ago but a new study of the ash deposits from an ancient volcanic eruption that were about the sediment in which the fossil was led to a team
of researchers to change dating.
As the Cambridge University team argues led by Vidal Vulcanologist in a study published in Nature magazine, these volcanic deposits come from a great explosive volcanic eruption from the Shala Volcano.
“Instead of having less than 200,000 years, we now know that its antiquity exceeds 233,000 years, it has been very exciting to discover that our older ‘unquestionable’ ancestor is older than it had been estimated. And it is a result that is consistent with
The most recent human evolution models, which establish the origin of our species between 350,000 and 200,000 years, “says this Céline Vidal newspaper, the main author of the study.
Céline Vidal clarifies that, from its point of view, Omo I would be “the oldest unquestionable member of our species” and with more similar features of modern humans because, although fossils have been found attributed to older sapiens, they had fewer traits
In common with us that the Ethiopian fossil that leads its research.
230,000 years ago our species, formed almost as we know it today, saving nuances of a greater robustness in the facial and cranial features, it was already walking around Africa
As José María Bermúdez de Castro, co-director of Atapuerca deposits, in Burgos, have been found other fossils of Homo Sapiens of an antiquity similar and quite superior to Kibish men in other areas of the world.
The oldest found in the deposit of Jebel Irhoud, in Morocco, where human remains were recovered with dates that came up to 315,000 years old, with an error range of ± 34,000 years.
“Human remains have almost all the physical attributes that we could expect in the oldest members of Homo Sapiens, and it is undoubtedly about the fossils that are closest to the Model of H. Sapiens Archaic,” explains the paleontologist.
However, he explains that “many colleagues think that these hominins would be something like the anteroom of our species, fully shaped.”
A bermúdez de Castro has not surprised that this new dating delay the formation of the Sitting of Ethiopia: “230,000 years ago our species, formed almost as we know it today, saving nuances of a greater robustness in facial and cranial features,
It was already walking around Africa. Of that same antiquity is the Skull of Florisbad, in South Africa, assigned by his Delete Thomas Dryer at Homo Helmei, but currently included in Homo Sapiens. So we can continue to affirm that the first hominines with an aspect inéquibely
As ours are in Africa between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago, an expected fact that does not change anything more than the dating of that deposit, “he says.
The Spanish paleontologist, without relation to the study of Nature, recalls that “the dating of the deposits, although they are meritorious, are not an absolute truth or should never occur as a downward matter” because “the techniques improve and there are always new methods
of dating, which must be employed in all deposits. ”
From its point of view, “with this continuous evaluation we can approach the reality of the time in which the sediments and fossils were deposited. If a battery of dates with different methods is performed in any field, a range of ages is obtained
, with a minimum value and a maximum value. When there are other elements to consider in the deposit, such as fauna, paleomagnetism, etc., it can then be discussed which could be the most likely chronology. ”
