Scientists unearth oldest known fossil remains of humans at Ethiopian lake
The three skulls, dating backbetween 154,000 and 160,000 years, belonged to a race of people who may be the ancestors of everyone livingtoday.
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 originated in Africa and then spread throughout Europe and Asia.
They are also the final nail in the coffin for the idea no longer widely held that modern humans evolved from more primitive neanderthals.
The skulls, described by a team of international scientists in the journal Nature, were found in 1997 near the village of Herto, about 140 miles north-east of Addis Ababa.
Scientists surveyed the site after stone artefacts and a butchered fossil hippopotamus skull were spotted among sandy sediments.
The early humans who inhabited the area 160,000 years ago lived near the shore of a shallow freshwater lake filled with abundant catfish, crocodiles and hippos. Today, the region is the home of the semi-nomadic Afar people. Two of the skulls were of adults, while the third belonged to a child.
The most complete fossil was that of an adult male skull lacking a lower jaw found embedded in ancient cemented sands. Skullcap pieces from the second individual were found nearby. More than 200 fragments of the child's cranium were scattered over a wide area.
Professor F Clark Howell, from the University of California at Berkeley, who co-led the study, said: "The Herto fossils are unmistakably non-Neanderthal and show that near-humans had evolved in Africa long before the European Neanderthals disappeared. They demonstrate conclusively that there was never a Neanderthal stage in human evolution."
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
