Do we have any record on the oldest human skeletons found?

Question

Where were they found and how far do they date back?

Answer 1

There is some debate on this, but from my Archaeology class, I learned that the first real human (homo sapien) found is approximately 160,000-120,000 years old. This skeleton was found at Klasies River Mouth, South Africa.

I hope this helps!

Answer 2

Ugh. Horrible article. The bit about reversing the "common wisdom of human evolution" is particularly misleading. It's actually just more evidence in support of the existing hypothesis. We already knew that modern apes and humans both evolved from a common ancestor. This skeleton is just the closest descendant of that ancestor we have found to date. The "common wisdom" is just that. It's the common misunderstanding of evolution that people think it claims we evolved from chimps. It's a very cool discovery, but reporters who cover science stories have a really bad habit of trying to turn every story into some sensationalistic revelation: Scientists are baffled! This changes everything we know about biology! The sky is falling! It hasn't gotten better since most of the print media have been getting rid of their science journalism departments, and letting less experienced reporters cover science stories.