(Reuters) – Sophisticated scanning technology reveals fascinating mysteries about Little Foot, a remarkable fossil of an early human prehistoric man who lived in South Africa 3.67 million years ago at a critical time in our evolutionary history .
Scientists said Tuesday they studied key parts of the nearly finished and well-preserved fossil at Britain’s national synchrotron facility, Diamond Light Source. The scan focused on the Little Foot cranial cellar – the upper part of her brain – and her lower jaws, or mandible.
The researchers gained insights not only into the biology of Little Foot’s sex but also into the hardships this adult female adult has encountered in her lifetime.
The Little Foot genre combined ape-like and human-like characteristics and is considered a direct ancestor of humans. University of Witwatersrand paleoanthropologist Ron Clarke, who discovered the fossil in the 1990s in the Sterkfontein Caves northwest of Johannesburg and is co-author of the new study, has identified the species as Australopithecus prometheus.
“In the cranial cruciate ligament, we could find the vascular canals in the spongy bone that are possibly involved in brain thermoregulation – as the brain cools,” said Amélie Beaudet, a Cambridge University specialist , which led the study published in the journal e-Life.
“This is very interesting because we didn’t know much about that system,” said Beaudet, noting that it appeared to play a key role in a threefold increase in brain size from Australopithecus to humans. today.
Little Foot’s teeth also appeared.
“Dental figs are well preserved. She was relatively old because her teeth are very tired, ”said Beaudet, although the exact age of Little Foot has not yet been determined.
The researchers noticed defects in the tooth enamel that were indicative of two childhood strokes of physical stress such as disease or malnutrition.
“There is still a lot to learn about the biology of early hominin,” said study co-author Thomas Connolley, Diamond’s lead beamline scientist, using a term that includes modern humans and some extinct members of the human evolutionary line. “Synchrotron X-ray imaging allows the examination of fossil samples in a manner similar to a CT X-ray examination of a patient, but in more detail.”
Little Foot, which has a moniker revealing the small foot bones that were among the first elements of the skeleton found, stood about 4-feet-3-inches (130 cm) high. Little Foot has been compared to the lesser-known and less complete crown known as Lucy.
Both are species of the genus Australopithecus but had different biological characteristics, just as modern humans and Neanderthals are species of the same species – Homo – but had different characteristics. The genus Lucy is called Australopithecus afarensis.
“Australopithecus could be the direct ancestor of Homo – humans – and we need to learn more about the different species of Australopithecus to decide which one would be the best candidate to become our direct ancestor. , ”Beaudet said.
Our own species, Homo sapiens, first appeared about 300,000 years ago.
The synchrotron results build on previous research on Little Foot.
The species was able to walk completely upright, but had signs indicating that it was still climbing trees, perhaps sleeping there to avoid large predators. He had gorilla-like facial features and powerful hands for climbing. His legs longer than his arms, as in modern humans, made him the oldest hominin known to certainly have that attraction.
“Remains of Australopithecus skeleton have previously been partial and fragmented,” Clarke said.
Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien