Omo Kibish
Ethiopian fossils found by Richard Leakey in 1967 are re-dated to at least 233,000 years.
- When
- Known to
- ± 22 thousand years
- Era
- Middle Pleistocene, Quaternary
Omo I, from the Kibish Formation in southern Ethiopia, has the globular braincase and chin that mark anatomically modern humans. Originally dated to about 130,000 years, then 195,000, it was re-dated in 2022 to at least 233,000 years ago by identifying the volcanic ash layer above it. It is the oldest fossil generally accepted as anatomically modern rather than merely early Homo sapiens — the distinction being skull shape, which Jebel Irhoud lacks.