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September 21, 2006
3.3-Million-year-old Child Found!
Well, it wasn't that old when it died. Kambiz Kamrani on Anthropology.net has the lowdown on the fossilized remains of a human-like child, from 3.3 million years ago. The pictures are great. He has links to news sources and the Nature articles published today. It is thought to be a female Australopithecus afarensis, the same species as the famous Lucy, but a three-year-old child rather than an adult. The fossil comes from Dikika, Ethiopia. Not only did the anthropologists find many skull fragments which have been nicely reconstruction but there are several remains of long bones too. And even an almost complete hyoid bone.
PZ at Pharyngula says this about the hyoid and a few of the other bones,
Some of the surprises: the hyoid bone is chimpanzee-like, and implies chimp-like vocalization abilities. She had a long way to go before she could have a conversation. The fingers are long and curved, and the scapula is more gorilla-like than ours; there is a suggestion of better arboreal ability than we have.
John Hawks has an interesting post on the hyoid bone and laryngeal air sacs in some apes but not humans.
Posted by Duane Smith at September 21, 2006 7:45 AM | Read more on Paleoanthropology |
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