As of 2024, the title of "oldest known human skeleton" doesn't belong to some dusty dude in a pharaoh's tomb.
It belongs to a collection of bones dubbed Omo I, found in Ethiopia.
Reproduction from partial skull
Now, before you start picturing some ancient Ethiopian king decked out in gold, hold your horses.
Omo I ain't exactly a looker.
Found in the late 1960s, this pile of bones caused a ruckus in the scientific community.
Dating them was like trying to figure out the age of a frat house after a rager – messy and full of conflicting evidence.
But after decades of squabbling and scientific shenanigans, they've pegged Omo I at roughly 233,000 years old.
That means this early human was strutting their stuff around the East African Rift Valley while most of Europe was still buried under ice.
Omo I isn't even a complete skeleton. It's a bunch of skull fragments, some teeth, and a few other bones.
It's like trying to reconstruct a dinosaur from a single toenail – you can get the gist, but it ain't exactly a museum-worthy display.
So, what does Omo I teach us?
Well, for starters, it confirms that our species, Homo sapiens, has been around a lot longer than some folks thought.
It also suggests that East Africa was a hotbed of human evolution, a kind of breeding ground for brainy primates.
Of course, there's always the chance that some other even older skeleton is lurking out there, waiting to be discovered.
Maybe it's buried under a parking lot in Cleveland, or perhaps it's chilling in some billionaire's private collection.
Who knows?
Time knows.
Writer: Silk Road
