Our debut as humans just became a lot more historic. A new study concludes that the earliest known humans appeared in southern Ethiopia by about 195,000 years ago, about 35,000 years earlier than previously thought, based on what researchers say are the oldest anatomically modern human fossils ever found. Although leaving the full-fledged arrival of Homo sapiens far from resolved, the "bombshell," as it's being called by other scientists, suggests that roughly three-fourths of modern human evolution occurred within the African continent."This is really good news," said Sally McBrearty, an paleoanthropologist at the University of Connecticut in Storrs familiar with the research."It's a great date for an incredibly important fossil -- the date for the oldest representative of our species," agreed Daniel Lieberman, a biological anthropologist at Harvard University also familiar with the study.

Study co-author John Fleagle, a professor of anatomical sciences at Stony Brook University, said the research fits well with evidence that the last of our genes became fully distinct from other primates around 200,000 years ago. In addition, it supports other genetic studies showing that the bulk of human genetic diversity occurring since then can be found within the continent of Africa, before its inhabitants began emigrating to the Middle East, Europe, and Asia about 50,000 years ago.

View: Full Article | Source: Newsday

Thats some pretty cool stuff! I have watched a few documentaries on the subject. The human body has increased a considerable amount in size. This applies especialy to the cranial cavity. We have more brains!

What a find! It amazing how after all this time we could still uncover such great fossils!

Very interestinh indeed, but you never know we may find fossils that are even older one day!

I agree. I think we've found only a very few of the fossils that are sitting in the ground. There are vast riches wating to be discovered. There are still huge gaps in our understanding of our ancestors.

You're right, imorningsun. It appears that the first thing to change after our ancestors split off from the ancestors of the chimps and bonobos was that they walked upright. Our distant ancestors still had long, strong arms and were probably great at climbing trees, but they walked completely upright when on the ground. Their brains were the same size as chimp brains although they may have started developing better language skills than chimpoids soon after the split. The huge brain of the modern human began to appear millions of years after the upright posture. Our ancestors had the abnormally huge brains of the modern humans only for a few hundred thousand years before now. We are exceptional animals. No other creatures have developed the power to change the world that humans and their ancestors have developed. I only hope that we develop the wisdom needed to control our vast powers before we destroy the only world we've ever known.

Carbon dating, radiometric dating, its all inaccurate. They are based on a one situation thing, not a universal situation. Fossilisation does not take a long time like we were meant to think, it is a process that has to happen quickly or it will not work. The odds of fossilisation happing are also slim. To believe in the evolution theory, you have to be pretty narrow minded. Answer this question for me. Can animals 'feel' use 'logic' and think like a human being? If not, will they some day evolve that ability. These things in my opinoin can not be given through evolution, but we recieve them from a diffrent sourse. God created humans diffrent from other animals and the biblical timeline is quite accurate. Humans DID NOT evolve from flea picking apes. Obviously, animals and humans would be similar because they have the same creator. we share 50% of our DNA with bananas and we are not half banana nor is a banana half human.

Carbon dating is wrong because you say so, yes of course

LMAO

I have read that cats have a similarly structured brain as humans. Yet my cat at5 years old still attacks the cat in the mirror. My dog knows better and his brain is completely different.

And there are some people I don't let near a mirror.