'Lucy's baby' rattles human evolution (Cosmos)

by Kate Arneman
Cosmos Online

SYDNEY: The discovery of an infant human ancestor, dubbed 'Lucy’s baby', will shake up our understanding of human evolution, according to its finders in Dikika, Ethiopia.

Two articles published today in the British journal Nature identified the fossil remains - the oldest and most complete infant skeleton found to date - as those of a three-year-old girl who lived 3.3 million years ago. She belongs to the species Australopithecus afarensis, of which the iconic adult skeleton, nicknamed 'Lucy', is also a member.

“The Dikika girl stands as one of the major discoveries in the history of palaeoanthropology,” research team leader Zeresenay Alemseged said, citing the remarkably well-preserved condition of the bones, the geological age and completeness of the specimen.

“It’s impossible to overstate the importance of the specimen,” said Charles Lockwood, an anthropologist at University College London. “There is a remarkable amount of new information here.”

Researchers think that the child’s more or less intact body was covered by sandstone sediments in flood waters shortly after death, thus preserving the skeleton.
Infant bones are more fragile than those of adults, and prior to this find, the only remains of young children of this geological age were insubstantial: a partial skull, a piece of jaw or some isolated teeth.

The Dikika discovery, in contrast, includes a complete skull, a sandstone impression of the brain, the entire torso and parts of the upper and lower limbs, making it “a veritable mine of information about a crucial stage in human evolutionary history,” according to Bernard Wood, of the Department of Anthropology at George Washington University.

“The discoverers of the Dikika fossil have only just begun the task of capturing all the data contained in the specimen,” said Wood. As the bones are cleaned, prepared and reconstructed as a skeleton, researchers hope to uncover new information about the growth and development of the individual and the species, and settle an old debate – how A. afarensis moved. [For more..Click Here]