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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Photo: Humans 80,000 Years Older Than Previously Thought?


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Stone tools found at the archaeological site of Gademotta, in the Ethiopian Rift Valley, were likely crafted by the earliest Homo sapiens, according to a study published in December 2008.

The tools were uncovered in the 1970s, but it was not until this year that new dating techniques revealed the tools to be far older than the oldest known Homo sapien bones, which are around 195,000 years old.

Photographs courtesy Paul Renne and Leah Morgan