Little Foot is a bragging spate . Not only is this rare and wonderfully continue skeleton themost completeaustralopithecine – a putative evolutionary ancestor of humans– specimen ever discovered , but it is also one of the old hominid skeletal system dated so far . However , Little Foot has caused quite a bustle among the scientific biotic community , and no one could agree on how honest-to-goodness he is . Now , thanks to anadvanced date technique , researchers intend that they can finally slap an historic period on this famous skeleton .
fit in to their results , Little Foot die 3.67 million years ago , making him an older congener of the as famous skeleton “ Lucy . ” If this escort reserve up , it could mean that Little Foot is an ascendant of the human lineage , which is exciting . The determination have been published in the journalNature .
picayune Foot , a member of theAustralopithecusgenus , was unearth 21 years ago in a cave at Sterkfontein , South Africa . Alongside this nigh ended skeleton , the cave was ground tocontainone of the full-grown ingathering ofAustralopithecusfossils in the full cosmos . In a dissimilar section to Little Foot , fossilist also discovered an assemblage of other pit prick , which are thought to be some of the oldest known from South Africa .
While there is no doubt that the site is meg of years old , the precise age of the specimens has been contentious . see technique produced wildly dissimilar age for Little Foot , roll between2 to 4 million years old . Although many agreed with an estimation of 3 million years , scientists were keen to attempt to place a more accurate date on the skeleton using a proficiency promise isochron sepulture dating .
This method acting ask measure the ratios of different form , or isotope , of the element aluminum and beryllium in the rocks environ the fossil . The isotope –aluminium-26 and beryllium-10 - - are only created when rock areexposed to cosmic rays . When the rock goes underground , the atoms begin to decay at a known rate , which is assumed to be constant . By look at the ratio of these isotopes , scientists can therefore estimate how long a sample has been buried for .
According to their measurements , Little Foot is 3.67 million years old , and the stone tools found in the same cave are 2.18 million years quondam . That importantly agitate back the antecedently proposed date for tool - bearing hominids in this part of Africa , theresearchers say .
Alongside providing a new date for the specimens , the scientists also argue that Little Foot represents a unexampled species ofAustralopithecus , calledA. Prometheus , which is quite different toA. afarensis , acontemporary congenator . However , this affirmation hasattracted criticismas some researchers believe Little Foot could be an example ofA. africanus , a species which is not thought to be an ancestor of humans . Scientists are still conducting detailed analyses of the skeleton , which should hopefully offer some further clarity on this issuing .
[ Via Nature , Purdue UniversityandScience ]
