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These were made when the bone was still fresh in a manner indicating ritual practice. Also of significance are cut marks on the child's skull. They show a suite of modern human traits, mixed with archaic and early modern features. Some scientists regard these fossils as a sub-species of modern humans (named Homo sapiens idàltu) because of some slight differences in their skull features. They are some of the oldest fossils of modern Homo sapiens yet discovered.

This skull from an adult male and those of another adult and a child were found in 1997 and publicly announced in 2003. Herto – a 160,000-year-old partial skull discovered in1997 in Herto, Ethiopia.

Important specimens: Early modern Homo sapiens This suggests that the Cro-Magnons had migrated from a warmer climate and had a relatively recent African ancestry. Cro-Magnon skeletons have proportions similar to those of modern Africans rather than modern Europeans. This adult male represents the oldest known skull of a modern human from western Europe.

Cro-Magnon 1 – a 32,000-year-old skull discovered in 1868 in Cro-Magnon rockshelter, Les Eyzies, France.

The skeletons were taken to a local cemetery for burial but later investigations indicated that the skeletons were actually up to 10,000 years old. A workman digging a trench in a hillside found a cave that had been blocked by rock but after clearing away the debris he found 17 skeletons. The first Aurignac fossils were accidentally found in 1852.

Aurignac – skull discovered in Aurignac, France.

This skull lacks the typically northern Asian features found in modern populations from those regions, lending support to popular theories that such features only arose in the last 8000 years. Age is uncertain, but at least 15,000 years old.

Liujiang – a skull discovered in 1958 in Guanxi province, South China.

Important specimens: Late early modern Homo sapiens Key specimens that reveal an evolutionary transition from archaic to modern Homo sapiens include Florisbad cranium, LH18 from Laetoli, Omo 1 and 2 from Omo-Kibish, Herto skull from Ethiopia and Skhul 5 from Israel. Late surviving populations of archaic Homo sapiens and Homo heidelbergensis lived alongside early modern Homo sapiens before disappearing from the fossil record by about 100,000 years ago. Some suggest the name Homo helmei for these intermediate specimens that represent populations on the brink of becoming modern.

There is, however, some difficulty in placing many of the transitional specimens into a particular species because they have a mixture of intermediate features which are especially apparent in the sizes and shapes of the forehead, brow ridge and face. African fossils provide the best evidence for the evolutionary transition from Homo heidelbergensis to archaic Homo sapiens and then to early modern Homo sapiens.