The oldest remains of anatomically modern human discovered so far date back 160,000 years. They consist of two complete crania, one adult and one child, and fragments from another adult skull. They were discovered in Ethiopia by a team of scientists led by Tim White, Berkeley University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.

Note from Dr White: “Anatomically modern human” is the best descriptor, and this refers to the anatomy of the skull, particularly the face, in which modern people differ from all earlier, fossil forms.

They have all the features associated with modern Homo sapiens, some of which are more primitive-looking, suggesting that these creatures belong at the bottom of the Homo sapiens family tree. Results from analysis of the skulls were published in the journal Nature on 12 June 2003.