Homo sapiens idaltu is an extinct subspecies of Homo sapiens that lived over 160,000 years ago in Africa. Its fossilized remains were discovered in Ethiopia in 1997, but first unveiled in 2003. This fossil differs from those of early forms of H. sapiens sapiens such as Cro-Magnon found in Europe and other parts of the world in that its morphology has many archaic features not typical of H. sapiens. It appears to be the oldest representative of the H. sapiens species found so far. The name idaltu is an Amharic word for "elder".
See also
References
- White et al, Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia, Nature, 423:742-7 (2003).