Homo sapiens idaltu

Taxobox
name = Archaic Humans
fossil_range = Pleistocene (Lower Paleolithic)
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Primates
familia = Hominidae
subfamilia = Homininae
genus = "Homo"
species = "H. sapiens"
subspecies = "H. s. idaltu"
trinomial = †"Homo sapiens idaltu"
trinomial_authority = White et al, 2003

"Homo sapiens idaltu" is an extinct subspecies of "Homo sapiens" that lived almost 160,000 years ago in Pleistocene Africa. " _aa. Idaltu" is the Afar word for "elder, first born". The fossilized remains of "H. s. idaltu" were discovered at Herto Bouri in the Middle Awash site of Ethiopia's Afar Triangle in 1997 by Tim White, but were first unveiled in 2003. Herto Bouri is a region of Ethiopia under volcanic layers. By using radioisotope dating, the layers date between 154,000 and 160,000 years old. Three well preserved crania are accounted for, the best preserved being from an adult male (BOU-VP-16/1) having a brain capacity of 1450 cm³. The other crania include another partial adult male and a six year old child.

These fossils differ from those of chronologically later forms of early "H. sapiens" such as Cro-Magnon found in Europe and other parts of the world in that their morphology has many archaic features not typical of "H. sapiens" (although modern human skulls do differ across the globe). Despite the archaic features, these specimens are postulated to represent the direct ancestors of modern "Homo sapiens sapiens" which, according to the recent "Out of Africa" theory, developed shortly after this period (Khoisan mitochondrial divergence dated not later than 110,000 B.P.) in Eastern Africa, and as such, to be the oldest representative of the "H. sapiens" species found so far.

See also

* List of fossil sites "(with link directory)"
* List of hominina (hominid) fossils "(with images)"
* Early Homo sapiens

References

*cite journal|author=White, Tim D., Asfaw, B., DeGusta, D., Gilbert, H., Richards, G.D., Suwa, G. and Howell, F.C.|title=Pleistocene "Homo sapiens" from Middle Awash, Ethiopia|journal=Nature|volume=423|pages=742–747|year=2003|doi=10.1038/nature01669|issue=6491

External links

* [http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/06/11_idaltu.shtml 160,000-year-old fossilized skulls uncovered in Ethiopia are oldest anatomically modern humans] , Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley, 11 June 2003.
* [http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s877478.htm Missing link in human evolution found in Africa] (abc.net.au 12 June 2003)
* [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0611_030611_earliesthuman.html Oldest Homo Sapiens Fossils Found, Experts Say (National Geographic News)]
* [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/human-origins/webcast-humanoriginsvid/human-origins.html Chris Stringer comments on the 2003-findings (Natural History Museum)]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2978800.stm BBC report and image of the reconstructed skull discovered at Herto]