Austrolopithecus young
2006/11/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria
The region called Afar, in Ethiopia, is a great hayedo for paleoanthropologists. There they discovered, in 1974, the most famous fossil of an Australophitecus, known as Lucy. And there they found another surprising fossil in the year 2000: The almost complete skeleton of a young Australophitecus, a child. It was discovered in 2000, but they have worked for five years to completely remove the bones from the soil. Subsequently, the bones have been dated, other analyses have been carried out and the results have now been presented in the journal Nature.
To know that he was a child, anthropologists had to compare the fossil with other fossils of the same species (Australophitecus afarensis). The comparison makes it clear that when he died he was not completely mature, he was about three years old, which singling out this fossil, which keeps information not only about the evolution of species but also about body development.
Youth, for example, is perceived in the brain, which is about three quarters of an adult's brain. In addition, this data places the Australophitecus closer to hominids than chimpanzees, since at this age the size of the brain of chimpanzees is approximately 90% of the most mature.
But, besides being a child, the number of bones that have found the fossil is remarkable. The skull is complete with dentures, all the bones of the trunk, and have found the largest bones in the arms and legs. It is not customary for bones to remain until today. It is possible to die in a flood, the body is trapped in sediments from the beginning, and therefore remains almost entirely. And in anthropology, having many bones is the same as having a lot of information.
In this case, for example, there is sufficient information to answer whether or not the Australopithecus lived in the trees. Many say that Lucy, discovered in 1974, has a skeleton to walk on two legs. But Lucy's omophiles did not recover, so it could not be ensured that he presented a body hanging on the branches (monobody) or that he could walk on the ground (corpus of hominids). In the new fossil, however, the shoulder blades are complete and it is observed that this was an intermediate case of two bodies. Adaptation to the trees that the Australophitecus was losing.
The bones have given many other data. Among other things, the hioid, a small bone in the throat, has not been lost. Rarely it lasts, and that is why it is a treasure for anthropologists. The study of this bone allows, to some extent, to analyze the emission capacity of sounds.
The young Australophitecus discovers many secrets. And it will still have many more.
