Breakin News: Earliest evidence of man? Oldest human remains in east Africa dated 30,000 years earlier than thought.

The oldest remains of a modern human have been backdated 30,000 years earlier than previously thought, to 230,000 years ago. The fossils – known as Omo I – were found in Ethiopia in 1967 by a team directed by leading anthropologist Richard Leakey, who died on January 2 at the age of 77.

Scientists have been attempting to date the oldest fossils in eastern Africa widely recognized as representing our species, Homo sapiens, precisely ever since. Now, the international team, led by University of Cambridge scientists, has established that they are much older than previously thought by dating the chemical fingerprints of volcanic ash layers found above and below the sediments in which the fossils were found.

Earlier attempts to date the fossils suggested they were less than 200,000 years old. The new research, published in the journal