KNM-ER 1808

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KNM-ER 1808 is the archive number of the fossil skeleton of an adult female Homo erectus , the first bones of which were discovered in 1973 by Kamoya Kimeu in the area of ​​the site 103 of Koobi Fora on the northeast coast of Lake Turkana in Kenya . At that time it was the most complete skeleton of Homo erectus ever recovered , but lost this rank the following year when the remains of the Nariokotome boy were discovered west of Lake Turkana - also by Kimeu . From the construction of the bones of KNM-ER 1808, conclusions could be drawn about the diet and social behavior of Homo erectus .

Naming

The name KNM-ER 1808 was determined by excavation manager Richard Leakey . It refers to the storage place of the fossils, the National Museums of Kenya (KNM), as well as to the place of discovery to the east of the water then known as Lake Rudolf (now: Lake Turkana) (hence ER for East Rudolf ). 1808 (spoken: eighteen-zero-eight) is the consecutive numbering of fossils from this site.

discovery

First, parts of the skull and some teeth were recovered from the 1.6 to 1.7 million year old "skeleton eighteen-zero-eight". The remaining bones were scattered over an area the size of a soccer field, reported Alan Walker in 2011: “That was bad enough. But the whole area looked as if it had been sprinkled with pieces of fossils: crocodiles, turtles, hippos, antelopes, elephants, giant baboons, giraffes - everything was crumbled, into hundreds of pieces, around. ”A total of 40,000 fragments of fossils were collected and the fragments the erectus bone is then sorted out.

This assignment was made easier by a disease of the erectus bones below the skull, from which the individual had suffered and from which he presumably also died. The long arm and leg bones in particular turned out to be easily recognizable because their fragments - viewed in cross section - were normally shaped inside, but covered with a layer of bone mass up to one centimeter thick, as they were (only locally). can appear in the area of ​​healed bone fractures as a bone callus or as a braided bone .

Research into the causes of the bones

Radiologists and pathologists of the Johns Hopkins Hospital , which were drawn by Alan Walker to rate came due to x-rays and cross sections of the deformed bones to the conclusion that the malformations a series of hypervitaminosis A are, that is poisoning caused by too much vitamin A in of food: “The overdose of vitamin A led to the skin on the legs - the tissue that covers every bone in our body - becoming detached from the bone with every step and every muscle contraction. (The muscles are anchored to the bone via the skin of the leg.) Detached blood vessels drained their contents between the skin of the leg and the bones, so that these pieces of tissue separated further. In the case of 1808, the blood vessels formed huge lumps that ossified before she died. "

Douglas Mawson , in his 1915 report on a failed Antarctic expedition (The Home of the Blizzards), described the extremely painful consequences of vitamin A poisoning caused by eating dog liver (after losing all food). Therefore, the paleoanthropologists assume that "eighteen-zero-eight" must have been almost unable to move because of the pain. Still, she stayed alive for weeks, if not months, so that the bleeding could be turned into a diffuse bone mass. From this it was concluded that she was likely provided with water and food: “Her bones are poignant testimony to the dawn of society, of strong bonds between individuals that were far stronger than anything we find in baboons , chimpanzees, and other non-human See primates . "

Comparable evidence of caring behavior was provided in 2005 by the somewhat older fossils of Dmanissi , the so-called skull 4 of which comes from an toothless older man whose healed inflammation in the jaw suggests that he was supplied with severely chopped food and, despite his disability, was socially integrated have to be.

Cause of hypervitaminosis

Conclusions about the way of life of Homo erectus also resulted from the search for the source of the allegedly excessive consumption of vitamin A. Vegetable sources could be excluded, since "Eighteen-Zero-Eight" would have had to consume a hundredweight of roots and leaves every day in order to regain poison. At times, bee brood was considered as a possible source, i.e. the consumption of eggs, larvae and pupae of the East African highland bee , but this too could ultimately be ruled out as unlikely. According to Alan Walker, the most likely source of vitamin A must therefore be the liver of predators , since half a kilogram of predator liver would have been enough to poison itself for the 38.5 kg "eighteen-zero-eight". “This thesis was supported by the extreme fissures that showed up under the microscope on the teeth of Homo erectus . Only meat and bone-eating predators such as hyenas show comparable signs of wear . ”As a result, the food spectrum of Homo erectus differed significantly from the more native species of hominini, such as Australopithecus afarensis and Australopithecus africanus, as well as Paranthropus, which consume mainly vegetable food . Since Homo erectus was muscular but has no morphological characteristics of a predator that can prey on other predators, it is assumed that he was a scavenger .

literature

  • Sean G. Dolan: A Critical Examination of the Bone Pathology on KNM-ER 1808, a 1.6 Million Year Old Homo erectus from Koobi Fora, Kenya. New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico 2011 ( full text ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard Leakey : Further evidence of Lower Pleistocene hominids from East Rudolf, North Kenya, 1973. In: Nature . Volume 248, 1974, pp. 653-656 ( doi: 10.1038 / 248653a0 ).
  2. ↑ KNM-ER 1808 on humanorigins.si.edu .
  3. ↑ Alan Walker and Pat Shipman: Turkana Boy. In search of the first person. Galila Verlag, Etsdorf am Kamp 2011, p. 189, ISBN 978-3-902533-77-7 .
  4. ^ A b Alan Walker, Michael R. Zimmerman and Richard Leakey : A possible case of hypervitaminosis A in Homo erectus. In: Nature. Volume 296, 1982, pp. 248-250 ( doi: 10.1038 / 296248a0 ).
  5. ^ Alan Walker and Pat Shipman, Turkana Boy , p. 196.
  6. ^ Douglas Mawson : The Home of the Blizzards. William Heinemann, London 1915, Volume I and Volume II .
  7. ^ Alan Walker and Pat Shipman, Turkana Boy , p. 198.
  8. ↑ David Lordkipanidze , Abesalom Vekua et al .: The earliest toothless hominin skull. In: Nature. Volume 434, 2005, pp. 717-718 ( doi: 10.1038 / 434717b ).
  9. ↑ David Lordkipanidze, Abesalom Vekua et al .: A fourth hominin skull from Dmanisi, Georgia. In: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology . Volume 288A, No. 11, 2006, pp. 146-1157 ( doi: 10.1002 / ar.a.20379 ).
  10. ↑ Mark Skinner: Bee brood consumption: an alternative explanation for hypervitaminosis A in KNM-ER 1808 (Homo erectus) from Koobi Fora, Kenya. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 20, 1991, pp. 493-503 ( doi: 10.1016 / 0047-2484 (91) 90022-N ).
  11. ↑ Mark Grabowski, Kevin G. Hatala, William L. Jungers and Brian G. Richmond: Body mass estimates of hominin fossils and the evolution of human body size. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 85, 2015, pp. 75-93 ( doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2015.05.005 ).
  12. ^ Alan Walker and Pat Shipman, Turkana Boy , p. 201.