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The main author Jeremy DeSilva is an associate professor of anthropology and world authority on the feet of our early ancestors.
Only three years after his death, Selam was already bipedal. In 2002, archaeologists discovered a well-preserved partial skeleton of an infant A. afarensis that was thought to be about 3 years old at the time of death. As a small foot of an old female, it is just the size of a human thumb and is part of an originally larger set.
The Evidence Comes From DIK-1-1 – a Relative Figure A skeleton of a 2.5 to 3 year old female, Australopithecus afarensis, was discovered in Dikika, Ethiopia.
The infant's foot fossil was the most intact bone that was ever dug up from our distant past. [19659002"Pourlapremièrefoisnousavonsunemerveilleusefenêtresurlamarched'unenfantde2ansetdemiilyaplusde3millionsd'years"adéclaréJeremyDeSilvaauteurprincipaldel'étudeetprofesseuragrégéd'anthropologieauDartmouthCollegedansunrapportAlemsegedestinternationalementconnucommeunpaléontologuedepremierplansurl'étudedesorigineshumainesetdel'évolutionhumaineIlacontribuéàl'étudeentantqu'auteuraîné
Australopithecus afarensis was similar to chimpanzees, developing rapidly after birth and reaching adulthood much earlier than modern humans, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History noted. "Dikika's foot adds to the wealth of knowledge about the mosaic nature of the skeletal evolution of the hominin" explains Alemseged
The fossil record shows that these ancient ancestors were able to walk upright. At two and a half years old, Selam would have walked on two legs. "But, walking poorly in a landscape full of predators is a recipe for extinction," said DeSilva in the statement
The fossil is the same species as Lucy's famous fossil and was found in the same neighborhood in Dikika, Ethiopia. Later, Selam was found a few miles from Lucy and was given the nickname "baby Lucy", although she was alive about 200,000 years before Lucy.
Remarkably well preserved, the foot allows researchers to reconstruct an image of life. specifically for toddlers millennia ago. After an examination of how the foot has developed and what it teaches us about human evolution, it can even begin to tell the story of the survival of our ancestors. It was a child of almost two and a half years old. This attribute would have allowed them to hang on to their mothers, climb trees and thwart predators.
"Every fossil gives us a little of our past, [but] when you have a child skeleton, you can ask about growth and development" And what did life look like? a child three million years ago, "DeSilva told National Geographic. Thus, even though afarensis toddlers could walk, they probably spent more time in the trees than on foot, unlike adults
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