Homo sapiens idaltu

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Archaic Humans Fossil range: Pleistocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Family: Hominidae Subfamily: Homininae Genus: Homo Species: H. sapiens Subspecies: H. s. idaltu
Trinomial name
†Homo sapiens idaltu White et al, 2003

Homo sapiens idaltu is an extinct subspecies of Homo sapiens that lived almost 160,000 years ago in Pleistocene Africa. 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 early (but chronologically later) forms of 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.

[edit] See also

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

[edit] References

• White, Tim D., Asfaw, B., DeGusta, D., Gilbert, H., Richards, G.D., Suwa, G. and Howell, F.C. (2003). "Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia". Nature 423 (6491): 742-747. doi:10.1038/nature01669. 

[edit] External links

• 160,000-year-old fossilized skulls uncovered in Ethiopia are oldest anatomically modern humans, Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley, 11 June 2003.
• Missing link in human evolution found in Africa (abc.net.au 12 June 2003)
• Oldest Homo Sapiens Fossils Found, Experts Say (National Geographic News)
• Chris Stringer comments on the 2003-findings (Natural History Museum)
• BBC report and image of the reconstructed skull discovered at Herto

v • d • e Part of the series on Human evolution Hominini Sahelanthropus tchadensis • Orrorin tugenensis • Ardipithecus • Kenyanthropus platyops Australopithecines Australopithecus: A. anamensis • A. afarensis • A. bahrelghazali • A. africanus • A. garhi Paranthropus: P. aethiopicus • P. boisei • P. robustus Humans and Proto-humans Homo: H. habilis • H. rudolfensis • H. georgicus • H. ergaster • H. erectus (H. e. lantianensis • H. e. palaeojavanicus • H. e. pekinensis • H. e. soloensis) • H. cepranensis • H. antecessor • H. heidelbergensis • H. neanderthalensis • H. rhodesiensis • H. floresiensis • H. sapiens (H. s. idaltu • H. s. sapiens) Topics: Timeline of human evolution • List of human evolution fossils • Human evolutionary genetics • Humanity development