BEIJING, Feb. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- A recent analysis of two Homo sapiens skulls unearthed nearly 40 years ago in Ethiopia has pushed the fossil record of modern humans back to 195,000 years ago.

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A new analysis of bones unearthed nearly 40 years ago in Ethiopia has pushed the fossil record of modern humans back to nearly 200,000 years ago -- perhaps close to the dawn of the species.

After looking at the volcanic ash where the skulls -- Omo I and Omo II unearthed in Kibish, Ethiopia in 1967 along the Omo river -- the researchers not only dated the remains as the same age but pushed back the date of their existence, making them by far the oldest humans.

    Previously, the oldest known fossils of Homo sapiens were Ethiopian skulls dated to about 160,000 years ago.

    "It pushes back the beginning of the anatomically modern humans," said geologist Frank Brown, Dean of the University of Utah's College of Mines and Earth Sciences and co-author of a new study into the skulls known as Omo I and Omo II. 
    
    The results of a study with New York's Stony Brook University and the Australian National University were published in the science journal Nature.

    One location near the Omo River in southwestern Ethiopia yielded Omo I, which includes part of a skull plus skeletal bones. Another site produced Omo II, which has more of a skull but no skeletal bones. Neither specimen has a complete face.

    Paul Renne, director of the Berkeley Geochronology Center, which specializes in dating rocks, said the researchers made "a reasonably good argument" to support their dating of the fossils.

    "It's more likely than not," he was quoted by AP as saying, calling the work "very exciting and important." Enditem

    (Agencies)