Re: How old is the oldest known remains of a human being?

Dear Mike,

Modern humans are in the species Homo sapiens sapiens, the earliest fossils of our species date back to 120,000 years ago. These are not however the earliest "humans". All human species (and there have been quite a few found as fossils, see this web-site ) belong in the Family Hominidae. It is thought that the hominids and apes split no less than 5 million years ago and no more than 40 million years ago but it is difficult to date. Lewin, using recent molecular evidence dated the split at 5-10 million years ago (Lewin 1987 - see details in the web-site above). The oldest known hominid fossil dates from 4.4 million years ago and is called Ardipithecus ramidus, it was found by White et al. in 1994.