Oldest fossils remains of child discovered
Fossilised skull of three-year-old girl
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Thursday, 21, Sep 2006 11:03
Scientists have uncovered the remains of a child who lived 3.3 million years ago.
The "remarkable" complete 3.3 million-year-old skeleton of a three-year-old female was found in Dikika, Ethiopia, in 2000. It has taken the past six years to undertake a painstaking removal of the cement-like material surrounding the bones.
She is thought to belong to the Australopithecus afarensis species, most popularly known for the previously-found 'Lucy' fossil.
Although other child remains have been found before, the completeness of the fossil provides a wealth of information about the development of our human ancestors.
Dr Zeresenay Alemseged of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, who led the study, commented: "Her completeness, antiquity, and age at death combined make this find unprecedented in the history of paleoanthropology, and open many new research avenues to investigate the childhood of early human ancestors."
Analysis of the remains so far suggests that the child is likely to have both walked upright and swung through trees.
Its chimpanzee-like ability to swing through trees is attributed to the shoulder bone being more like that of a gorilla than a modern human and the bones of the complete finger from the fossil are carved like those of a chimpanzee.
Meanwhile the femur (thigh bone), the tibia (shinbone) and the foot of the girl provide evidence that she walked upright effectively.
She is also though to hold vital clues about the origin of human speech, as Dr Alemseged argues: "Among the rare and exciting finds is the hyoid or tongue bone. Its morphology in the Dikika girl is similar to that of African great apes and different from that of humans.
"This bone is unknown for any species of extinct human ancestor, except for one Neanderthal specimen. The hyoid bone reflects how the voice box is built, and perhaps what sounds a species can produce."
Analysis of the fossilised remains is only in the early stages. Future studies of it will examine other parts of the skeleton, particularly the ribs, back bone, collar bones and the foot. It is hoped that following this a clear picture will emerge of the make up of baby ancestors and how they grew up.