Scientists discovered the big toe that let toddlers climb trees like apes 3 million years ago
31 mins ago
More than three million years ago, an ancestor of our Homo Spaiens species, called Australopithecus afarensis, was already walking around on two legs. But the feet of children during that period retained some apelike traits, perhaps giving them an edge when it came to scaling trees, according to a study published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday (July 4).
A group of anthropologists examined a foot belonging to the “world’s oldest toddlerâ€â€”a partial skeleton of a 3.3 million-year-old A. afarensisfemale child, which was originally excavated in 2002 in Dikka, Ethiopia. The Dikika toddler’s foot is crucial because it gives scientists a window into how the A. afarensis species grew up, and what characteristics were crucial to its evolution.
https://qz.com/1322615/scientists-have-discovered-the-big-toe-that-let-toddlers-climb-trees-like-apes-3-million-years-ago/
