[ad_1]
More than 3 million years ago, our ancient human ancestors, including their young children, stood on their feet and walked straight, according to a new study published in Science Advances . "For the first time, we have an incredible window on the walk of a child of 2 and a half years ago more than 3 million years," says Jeremy DeSilva, badociate professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College, one of the most prominent in the world. the feet of our early ancestors, said. "It's the most complete foot of a former juvenile ever discovered."
The small foot, the size of a human thumb, is part of an almost complete skeleton of 3.32 million years old of a young female Australopithecus afarensis discovered in 2002 in the Dikika region in Ethiopia by Zeresenay Alemseged, professor of biology and organic anatomy at the University of Chicago and lead author of the study.
Alemseged is recognized worldwide as a leading paleontologist in the study of human and human origins.
"Placed at a critical moment and at the outset of the human being, Australopithecus afarensis was more derived than Ardipithecus (an optional bipedal), but not yet a mandatory strider like Homo erectus.The Dikika Foot adds to the wealth of knowledge about the mosaic nature of the skeletal evolution of the hominid "Alemseged said.
Since the tiny foot fossil is the same species as the famous Lucy fossil and was found in the same neighborhood, it is not known that the child Dikika was labeled wrongly by Lucy as "Lucy's baby", although this young man lived more than 200,000 years before Lucy
studies the remarkably preserved anatomy of the fossil foot. been like years ago for this toddler and how our ancestors survived.
The researchers looked at how the foot would have been used, how it developed and what it tells us about human evolution.
The ancestors were good enough to walk on two legs.
"Walking on two legs is a mark of being human. But, walking poorly in a landscape full of predators is a recipe for extinction, "said DeSilva.
At age 2 and a half, the child Dikika was already walking on two legs, but there is clues in the fossil foot that she was still She was spending time in the trees, hanging on to her mother while she was looking for food.
Based on the skeletal structure of the child, more precisely the base of the big toe, the children probably spent more time in the trees than the adults.
"If you lived in Africa 3 million years ago without fire, without structures and without any defense, you'd better get up in a tree when the sun goes down, "said DeSilva." These results are essential to understanding the food and ecological adaptation of these species and are in agree with our previous research on other parts of the skeleton, in particular, the scapula, "noted Alemseged.
[ad_2]
Source link
