Selam, A 3.3 Million Years Old Toddler, Brought New Data On The Spine

Selam, the skeletal remains of a 3.3 million years old toddler, are bringing new data on the human spine.

The ancient skeleton of a 3.3 million years old baby, known as Selam, is bringing new evidence on the development of the human spine. This seems to indicate that humans were capable of walking around and running very much earlier than initially believed.

Selam is part of the Australopithecus afarensis, a species made famous thanks to “Lucy”. At the time, these were the earliest remains of a human ancestor. The skeleton of this baby was dated as being 3.3 million years old and was discovered in Dikika, Ethiopia.

Selam Comes With Unexpected Features

Selam presented quite an unexpected feature as its spine was noted to be very much similar to our own. This nearly complete skeleton displays 12 thoracic vertebrae and also has 12 pairs of ribs. It is one less than in most apps and comes sooner than expected.

This could make the Australopithecus afarensis a benchmark in the evolution process of ancient to modern human anatomy, according to the team.

“Selam has provided us the first glimpse into how our early ancestors’ spines were organized,” said Carol Ward. She is the study’s lead author and part of the University of Missouri School of Medicine.

Previous research also tried to determine the start of the transition point towards bipedalism. But evidence only showed this to have begun taking place some 60,000 years ago. Although Selam only reached around 2.5 years, the age of her remains, about 3.3 million years, is vital for this study.

The study team also underlined out the importance of the place on the spine where the thoracic vertebrae start transitioning to the lower back. In Selam’s case, this happens at the level of the 11^th vertebra. This same location was noted in many of our ancestors, but not in modern humans. These have more vertebrae in their lower back.

Zeresenay Alemseged, who discovered Selam back in 2000, also pointed out its importance. He stated that this toddler skeleton represents one of the earliest evidence of the point and transition process of humans as they evolved to bipedalism.

Study results were released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Image Source: Wikimedia

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Roxanne Briean

I am a geek, a gamer and a writer. I have always been fascinated with the online community. At the moment I work as a full-time writer and study interior design. When I'm not scouring the net in search of interesting new gadgets and software I spend my time in MOBAs or drawing.