The discovery in South Africa in the 1990s of the fossil “Little Foot”, a skeleton that lived 3.67 million years ago and was also a pivotal moment in human evolution.
The discovery in South Africa in the 1990s of a fossilized skeleton that lived 3.67 million years ago, a pivotal moment in human evolution, has unveiled interesting secrets about the mystery of human origins under advanced technology scanning and interpretation.
Scientists said today that they scanned important parts of the nearly complete and well-preserved fossil at the Diamond Light Source at the National Synchrotron Center in the United Kingdom. The scans focused on the cranial vault and lower jaw bone. Reuters reports that study co-author Thomas Connolley, chief beamline scientist at the National Accelerator Center, said, “The synchrotron X-ray scans allow the fossil samples to be examined, somewhat similar to an X-ray computed tomography scan of a hospital patient, but provide more detail.”
The researchers were able to gain a better understanding of the biology of the Little Foot species, as well as a glimpse into the hardships that the adult woman endured throughout her Life. “The species to which Little Foot belongs combines ape-like and human-like characteristics and is thought to be the direct ancestor of humans.
Ron Clarke, a paleoanthropologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, discovered the “Little Foot” fossil at Sterkfontein Caves, northwest of Johannesburg, in the 1990s. “The fossil “Smallfoot” was classified as Australopithecusprometheus. The study’s first author, Cambridge University paleoanthropologist mélie Beaudet, said, “At the top of the skull we can see blood vessels in the spongy bone, which may have something to do with the thermoregulation of the brain: how it cools down.” The study was published in the journal e-Life. “Since we don’t have a lot of information about this system, this is very interesting.” Bode added that it may have played an important role in “tripling the size of the brain from the Southern archaea to modern humans.
The “little foot” stands about 130 centimeters long, named after the first bone part found in the fossil. The importance of “Little Foot” has been compared to that of “Lucy” (Lucy). “Lucy lived about 3.2 million years ago, and the fossilized skeleton was found to be less complete. “Smallfoot and Lucy are both southern archaeopteryxes, but have different biological characteristics, just as modern humans and Neanderthals are both Homo, but have different characteristics. The “Lucy” species is known as Australopithecus afarensis. We do need to know more about the different species in the genus Australopithecus to determine which branch is the best candidate for our ancestors,” Bode said.
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