What is the evidence that suggests Turkana Boy did not have body hair?
The evidence for Turkana Boy’s hairlessness comes in part from the study of louse DNA. Hair is “rarely present in the fossil record” so researchers have turned to the study of parasites associated with hair, i.e. head and pubic lice. It turns out that the human head louse is very different from the human pubic louse.
What was the significance of Lake Turkana Boy what evidence was found about his age rate of maturation and physical development that was previously unknown?
The ‘Turkana Boy’ skeleton has allowed scientists to find out a lot of information about body size, body shape, and growth rates of Homo erectus. This skeleton is 40% complete, based on the principle that bones from one side of the body can tell what the same bone from the other side looked like even if it’s missing.
What did Turkana Boy look like?
The overall KNM-WT 15000 skeleton still had features (such as a low sloping forehead, strong brow ridges, and the absence of a chin) not seen in H. sapiens. However, there are significant defining characters, such as bigger brain size (880 cc). The arms and legs are slightly longer indicating effective bipedality.
Is Turkana boy older than Lucy?
The public press on Turkana Boy has been minuscule compared to that of Lucy, likely because this find was claimed to be 1.4 million years old by some experts and as old as 1.9 million Darwin years by others.
Why is the nearly complete skeleton from Nariokotome so important what kinds of evidence does it provide?
The Nariokotome boy’s skeleton has been called the fossil find of the century. Because it was so complete, it revealed a great deal not only about the anatomy of his species, Homo erectus (sometimes called Homo ergaster), but also clues about their life history and even social structure.
Why is Lake Turkana important for studying hominin evolution?
Yet ‘Turkana Boy’ is just one of many early human fossils discovered near the lake. Together they span four million years of human evolution. During the wetter times, it was an ideal place for early humans to live, and when they died it was a perfect place for their remains to fossilise.
How old was Turkana human?
…an 11–13-year-old male called “Turkana Boy.” A 1.44-million-year-old jawbone ascribed to H. habilis and a 1.55-million-year-old skull belonging to H. erectus have been found east of Lake Turkana. These fossils suggest that H.
How was Turkana Boy dated?
Both conventional potassium- argon and argon-argon dating were used to determine that the Turkana Boy was sandwiched between volcanic ashes respectively dated to about 1.88 million and about 1.39 million years ago.
When did they find Turkana Boy?
1984
In 1984, the Leakey team found an almost-complete fossilized skeleton that was dated to about 1.5 million years ago. This was a Homo erectus and is famously known as “Turkana Boy.”
Was Lucy the first human?
Fast Facts on an Early Human Ancestor. Perhaps the world’s most famous early human ancestor, the 3.2-million-year-old ape “Lucy” was the first Australopithecus afarensis skeleton ever found, though her remains are only about 40 percent complete (photo of Lucy’s bones). Discovered in 1974 by paleontologist Donald C.
