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Lucy's baby

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by PaulRyckier (U1753522) on Thursday, 21st September 2006

  
  
  
  I saw it this morning on teletexts of different TV-channels. The most interesting link was from the Dutch language Belgian public TV.
  
  And now I received it just in my "National Geographic" E-mail.
  
  Any comments? Any takers? lol?, my re-appeared erudite friend, from whom I learned that much in the last years.
  
  Warm regards to any replier and thanks in advance,
  
  Paul.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by lolbeeble (U1662865) on Friday, 22nd September 2006

  Paul, as I understand it this is the oldest and most complete juvanile skeleton yet and comes comes from an Ethiopian site, Dikika, that has only recently been subject to geological and paleontoligical analysis. It is the star of the project so far, providing evidence for the anatomy of the upper body of Autralapicus Aferensis whereas the lucy skeleton from the nearby Hadar valley had more information about the lower body such as the hips. As an example the child has a complete shoulder blade and this seems to be reminiscent of modern gorrilas adding to the suggestions from other remains, such as Lucy's elongated arms and curved finger tip bones, that part of Aferensis' lifestyle involved climbing trees as well as an upright gait. Mind you it has been interpreted that the expansion of the rift valley caused a more open environment with greater distances between patches of tree cover there is still a lot of heated debate about whether Afernisis and other gracile Australapithicine species like Africanus in the South of the continent spent any length of time in trees. Chances are the young might have if only to avoid predators not only from the ground but birds of prey as well.
  
  On top of that it is only the second human ancestor found with a preserved hyoid bone, the one that supports the muscles of the throat. The other comes from a much more recent Neanderthal skeleton. Now it is doubtful whether this hyoid bone will cause as much heated debate over the language capacity of the species as the Neanderthal specimin. Hominym remains dated to between the two bodies like the 1.5 million year old Turkana boy suggest that the level of fine control needed over the lungs to regulate breathing had not evolved based upon the size of the cavity in the centre of the spine down wich the nerves are carried. All the same it offers the chance to reconstruct more of the Australapiticine anatomy and suggest what sound they make.
  
  Anyway as a juvanile, aged about three at the time of death based on ther eruption of the first molar I'd guess and thus roughly the same age as the Tuang child found by Dart in South Africa in the 1920s, it does give a snapshot of the development towards adulthood as in the Lucy specimin. Essentially it seems that the size of the brain at age three was a much lower percentage of the fully developed adult brain than in modern chimpanzees. This suggests a longer time until reaching maturity than existing ape species and would seem to represent some degree of difference in the life cycle of Australapithicines and their contemporary ape species. It seems to validate the idea that the evolution of modern humans has seen a delay in the onset of maturity and thus a lengthening of childhood. This was apparent from the likes of the Turkana boy but this shows how early in the evolutionary path this development had begun, although it would seem that the eruption of adult teeth did not differ that much from modern chimpanzees even if the brain took longer to reach full size. This may well be linked to an increase in the size of Autralapithicine groups representing an adaptation to more open environments that start to appear in Eastern Africa. Safty in numbers and such like leading to more demands on learning how to socialise extending the legth of time before maturity.

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by PaulRyckier (U1753522) on Saturday, 23rd September 2006

  lol,
  
  thank you very much for this elaborated and thought-provoking reply. Although I read the text of the "geographical" I learned a lot more about the thinking about the "evolution" of mankind.
  
  With esteem,
  
  Paul.
  
  PS. lol, I add not for you but for the readers of these boards some links that I received via the newsletter of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Science:
  
  
  
  
  

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by PaulRyckier (U1753522) on Sunday, 24th September 2006

  lol,
  
  and other readers: The first entry about the Neanderthaler has not that much to do with the subject, but I mentioned it as reminder for our last discussion about the congress at Tongeren Belgium about the extinction of the Neanderthaler and the two opposing tendencies of scholars about it, which I promised to comment in another thread with you and a lady...I don't remember her name. But will find it back by clicking on my own name.
  
  Warm regards,
  
  Paul.

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