The Omo Kibish Formation in southwestern Ethiopia, within the East African Rift valley. The area is an area of high volcanic activity, and a rich source of early human remains and artifacts such as stone tools. Credit: Céline Vidal
Earliest human remains in eastern Africa dated to more than 230,000 years earlier.
The age of the earliest fossils in eastern Africa widely acknowledged as representing our types, Homo sapiens, has actually long been unsure. Now, dating of a huge volcanic eruption in Ethiopia exposes they are much older than previously believed.
The remains– called Omo I– were found in Ethiopia in the late 1960s, and researchers have actually been attempting to date them precisely since, by using the chemical fingerprints of volcanic ash layers discovered above and listed below the sediments in which the fossils were discovered.
The Omo Kibish Formation in southwestern Ethiopia, within the East African Rift valley. A global group of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, has reassessed the age of the Omo I remains– and Homo sapiens as a types. The Omo I remains were discovered in the Omo Kibish Formation in southwestern Ethiopia, within the East African Rift valley. By dating the layers of volcanic ash above and listed below where historical and fossil materials are discovered, researchers determined Omo I as the earliest proof of our species, Homo sapiens.
Considering that the Omo I fossils were found deeper than this specific ash layer, they need to be more than 230,000 years old.
An international team of scientists, led by the University of Cambridge, has reassessed the age of the Omo I stays– and Homo sapiens as a types. Earlier efforts to date the fossils suggested they were less than 200,000 years old, but the new research study shows they must be older than a gigantic volcanic eruption that occurred 230,000 years earlier. The outcomes are reported in the journal Nature.
Approximate location of the Omo Kibish Formation marked in red. Credit: NASA
The Omo I remains were discovered in the Omo Kibish Formation in southwestern Ethiopia, within the East African Rift valley. The area is an area of high volcanic activity, and an abundant source of early human remains and artifacts such as stone tools. By dating the layers of ashes above and listed below where archaeological and fossil products are discovered, researchers determined Omo I as the earliest evidence of our species, Homo sapiens.
” Using these approaches, the usually accepted age of the Omo fossils is under 200,000 years, but theres been a great deal of uncertainty around this date,” stated Dr. Céline Vidal from Cambridges Department of Geography, the papers lead author. “The fossils were discovered in a series, listed below a thick layer of ashes that nobody had handled to date with radiometric methods because the ash is too fine-grained.”
Researchers at the Omo Kibish geological development in southwestern Ethiopia. Credit: Al Deino
As part of a four-year task led by Professor Clive Oppenheimer, Vidal and her coworkers have been attempting to date all the significant volcanic eruptions in the Ethiopian Rift around the time of the emergence of Homo sapiens, a duration referred to as the late Middle Pleistocene.
The researchers collected pumice rock samples from the volcanic deposits and ground them down to sub-millimeter size. “Each eruption has its own finger print– its own evolutionary story below the surface area, which is identified by the path the lava followed,” stated Vidal. “Once youve squashed the rock, you release the minerals within, and after that you can date them, and determine the chemical signature of the volcanic glass that holds the minerals together.”
The scientists brought out new geochemical analysis to connect the fingerprint of the thick ashes layer from the Kamoya Hominin Site (KHS) with an eruption of Shala volcano, more than 400 kilometers away. The group then dated pumice samples from the volcano to 230,000 years back. Considering that the Omo I fossils were discovered deeper than this particular ash layer, they need to be more than 230,000 years of ages.
Omo Kibish Formation in southwestern Ethiopia. Credit: Céline Vidal
” First I discovered there was a geochemical match, however we didnt have the age of the Shala eruption,” said Vidal. The samples were sent to co-authors Dr. Dan Barfod and Professor Darren Mark at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) in Glasgow so they might determine the age of the rocks.
” When I received the outcomes and found out that the oldest Homo sapiens from the region was older than previously presumed, I was really delighted,” stated Vidal.
” The Omo Kibish Formation is an extensive sedimentary deposit which has actually been hardly accessed and examined in the past,” stated co-author and co-leader of the field examination Professor Asfawossen Asrat from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, who is currently at BIUST in Botswana. “Our closer appearance into the stratigraphy of the Omo Kibish Formation, especially the ash layers, permitted us to push the age of the oldest Homo sapiens in the area to a minimum of 230,000 years.”
” Unlike other Middle Pleistocene fossils which are believed to belong to the early stages of the Homo sapiens lineage, Omo I has indisputable modern human attributes, such as a globular and tall cranial vault and a chin,” stated co-author Dr. Aurélien Mounier from the Musée de lHomme in Paris. “The new date price quote, de facto, makes it the earliest undisputed Homo sapiens in Africa.”
Reproduction of the Omo-Kibish skull, Musée des Civilisations Noires de Dakar (Sénégal). Credit: GuillaumeG
The researchers state that while this research study shows a brand-new minimum age for Homo sapiens in eastern Africa, its possible that brand-new finds and brand-new research studies may extend the age of our species even further back in time.
” We can just date mankind based upon the fossils that we have, so its impossible to say that this is the conclusive age of our species,” stated Vidal. “The study of human evolution is constantly in movement: timelines and boundaries alter as our understanding enhances. These fossils show simply how resistant human beings are: that we made it through, prospered, and migrated in an area that was so vulnerable to natural catastrophes.”
” Its probably no coincidence that our earliest forefathers resided in such a geologically active rift valley– it gathered rainfall in lakes, supplying fresh water and drawing in animals, and acted as a natural migration corridor stretching countless kilometers,” stated Oppenheimer. “The volcanoes supplied wonderful materials to make stone tools and from time to time we had to develop our cognitive skills when large eruptions transformed the landscape.”
” Our forensic approach offers a brand-new minimum age for Homo sapiens in eastern Africa, but the obstacle still remains to offer a cap, an optimum age, for their development, which is widely believed to have actually occurred in this area,” stated co-author Professor Christine Lane, head of the Cambridge Tephra Laboratory where much of the work was carried out. “Its possible that new finds and new research studies may extend the age of our species even further back in time.”
” There are lots of other ash layers we are attempting to associate with eruptions of the Ethiopian Rift and ash deposits from other sedimentary developments,” said Vidal. “In time, we want to much better constrain the age of other fossils in the region.”
Recommendation: “Age of the earliest recognized Homo sapiens from eastern Africa” by Céline M. Vidal, Christine S. Lane, Asfawossen Asrat, Dan N. Barfod, Darren F. Mark, Emma L. Tomlinson, Amdemichael Zafu Tadesse, Gezahegn Yirgu, Alan Deino, William Hutchison, Aurélien Mounier and Clive Oppenheimer, 12 January 2022, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/ s41586-021-04275-8.
The research study was supported in part by the Leverhulme Trust, the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund and the Natural Environment Research Council and the National Environmental Isotope Facility. Céline Vidal is a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.
