Human Remains

1.) Child’s grave is the oldest human

burial found in Africa - Kenya
This skull, dated to around 78,000 years ago, was among the
remains of an early human found buried in a cave in Kenya. After
months of painstaking work, scientists revealed the body of a 2-
to 3-year-old nicknamed Mtoto, Swahili for “child.” This view
shows the left side of the skull with the jawbone intact, including
two unerupted teeth with unformed roots, lower left.

The remains also offer a rare glimpse into the workings of the early human mind—and heart. Described
online today in the journal Nature, the fossil has been nicknamed “Mtoto”—Swahili for "child"—and it
joins two other, slightly younger burials in Africa that also involve children. While three instances across
an entire continent hardly make a hefty sample, Pettitt finds the ages of the deceased particularly telling
in understanding the development of burial as a ritual practice.

Based on the way the remains had shifted position, the

researchers suspect that some perishable material was
placed as a pillow under the child’s head at burial and later
decomposed.
 2.) Oldest Stone Tools Discovered in
Kenya
A trove of stone artifacts uncovered in northwestern Kenya suggests human ancestors were crafting
tools 3.3 million years ago—about 700,000 years earlier than previously thought. In the form of flakes—
sharp stone fragments that could be used for cutting, as well as the cores from which flakes were struck,
and anvils, used to hold the cores during the knapping process. Overall, more than 130 artifacts have
been recovered from the site, called Lomekwi 3, said Stony Brook University archaeologist Sonia
Harmand, and some of them are quite large, weighing more than 30 pounds.
 3.) New human species identified from
Kenya fossils
Researchers studying fossils from northern Kenya have identified a new species
of human that lived two million years ago.

Anthropologists have discovered three human fossils that are between 1.78 and 1.95 million years old.
The specimens are of a face and two jawbones with teeth. The finds back the view that a skull found in
1972 is of a separate species of human, known as Homo rudolfensis. The skull was markedly different to
any others from that time. It had a relatively large brain and long flat face.

It’s also known as KNM-ER 1470, in 1972. Dating to 1.9

million years ago, the skull’s owner lived at the same time
as Homo habilis, the earliest known species of Homo. But
the skull’s larger brain size and larger cheek teeth—
characteristic of the earlier australopithecines—have led
some anthropologists to classify KNM-ER 1470 as a
separate species: H. rudolfensis.

4.) New Fossils of Homo erectus

Found in Kenya

Paleoanthropologists have uncovered two new

specimens of Homo erectus at the East Turkana site in
Kenya. They’ve also verified the age of a skull fragment of
Homo erectus — one of the oldest specimens
attributable to this species — found earlier at the same
site. Within 50 m of the reconstructed location, the
researchers found two new specimens: a partial pelvis
and a foot bone.
5.) Best-Preserved Human Ancestor Didn't
Have Bone Disorder
"Turkana Boy," an exquisitely preserved 1.5-
million-year-old human ancestor found in Kenya,
may not have had dwarfism or scoliosis, new research
suggests.
Past studies had suggested that the ancient human
ancestor, a Homo erectus, had suffered from a
congenital bone disorder that made him
unrepresentative of his species.
The exquisitely preserved fossil, unearthed near the
shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya in 1984, is the
most complete early human skeleton ever found. The
ancient hominid was likely a child or an adolescent
Homo erectus who lived and died about 1.5 million
years ago.
But about a decade ago, researchers proposed that
Turkana Boy was suffering from a congenital
deformation of the spine —possibly dwarfism or
scoliosis.
To find out, Hausler and his colleagues carefully
reanalyzed the skeletal bones. When they arranged
the ribs as they were originally laid out, they got an
asymmetrical back and rib cage.
"The ribs were arranged in the wrong way originally,
and then you get this asymmetry, which is essentially
not there," Häusler told LiveScience.
By rearranging the bones, the researchers found that
Turkana Boy actually had a symmetrical spine and rib
cage, meaning he wasn't suffering from dwarfism or
scoliosis. As a result, it's fair game to make
conclusions about the species' anatomy based on the
skeleton, Häusler said.
 6.) The Where and When of KNM-
WT 17000

The Black Skull, is found at site of West Turkana, Kenya in the year of 1985 discovered by
Alan Walker the black skull has the age about 2.5 million years old that in the line species of
Paranthropus aethiopicus.

This skull didn’t start out black – it was white, like all other bones in living animals. KNM-WT 17000 or
the ’Black Skull’ only got its dramatic dark color after millions of years of sitting in a manganese-rich soil
and absorbing minerals as it fossilized. This nearly complete fossilized cranium has a face that projects
far outward from the forehead, widely flaring zygomatic arches, and the largest sagittal crest of any
early human. Though some of the individual’s front teeth fell out and others were broken off after
death, molar and premolar roots in the jaw indicate that this early human would have also had massive
cheek teeth; all of these features are adaptations for heavy chewing.

Because of the sagittal crest and the skull’s small cranial capacity (410cc), researchers originally
classified the ’Black Skull’ as Paranthropus boisei - but further comparison showed more similarities to
Australopithecus afarensis. This mosaic of features led scientists to assign the specimen to a new
species: Paranthropus aethiopicus. The ’Black Skull’ is the only known adult skull of Paranthropus
aethiopicus.

7.) Australopithecus anamensis -- KNM-KP

29285
This partial tibia, which dates to about 4.1
million years ago, was found at the Kanapoi
site in Kenya.

A paleoanthropological research team headed

by Meave Leakey found the Specimen KNM-KP
29285 At Kenya Kanapoi on 1994. The
specimen time, Ranges about 4.1 million years
ago and was specifically found at 40Ar/39Ar
dating of the volcanic ash layer in which it was
found

This specimen, which consists of the proximal

and distal ends of a right tibia, provides the
earliest evidence for bipedalism in
Australopithecus anamensis. The proximal
condyles, which articulate with the distal end of
the femur, are concaved like the condyles seen
in anatomically modern Homo sapiens.
Additionally, similar to modern humans, the
proximal tibia is wider near the knee joint to
allow the deposit of extra spongy bone, which
acts as a shock absorber during bipedal
locomotion. This extra deposit of spongy bone
can also be seen in the medial malleolus, which
articulates with the ankle.

Australopithecus anamensis has a combination

of traits found in both apes and humans. The
upper end of the tibia (shin bone) shows an
expanded area of bone and a human-like
orientation of the ankle joint, indicative of
regular bipedal walking (support of body weight
on one leg at the time). Long forearms and
features of the wrist bones suggest these
individuals probably climbed trees as well. The
cranium combines some more ancestral features, such as a protruding face and a long and narrow
braincase, with some more derived features, such as forwardly projecting cheekbones similar to
Paranthropus.