The femur is one of the most well-described bones of the human skeleton in fields ranging from clinical anatomy to forensic medicine. Because it is the longest and strongest bone in the human body, and thus, one of the most well-preserved in skeletal remains, it makes the greatest contribution to archaeology.
Through the growing years, a layer of cartilage (the growth plate) separates each epiphyses from the bone shaft. Between 17 and 25 years, normal growth stops. The development and union of separate bone parts is complete.
Of course one of the first things a forensic scientist will look for in their quest to identify the deceased is what they are wearing. Does the deceased's clothing match the description given to the police?
Consult a scientist who specializes in teeth, known as an odontologist. They can determine how old a person was at death, what kind of health they were in and what kind of diet they had. Examine where the ribs join the sternum. This is also a good indicator of age.
The results of Cheddar Man's genome analysis align with recent research that has uncovered the convoluted nature of the evolution of human skin tone. The first humans to leave Africa 40,000 years ago are believed to have had dark skin, which would have been advantageous in sunny climates.
The First Humans
One of the earliest known humans is Homo habilis, or “handy man,†who lived about 2.4 million to 1.4 million years ago in Eastern and Southern Africa.The female skeleton, nicknamed Ardi, is 4.4 million years old, 1.2 million years older than the skeleton of Lucy, or Australopithecus afarensis, the most famous and, until now, the earliest hominid skeleton ever found.
The
Lucy specimen is an early australopithecine and is dated to about 3.2 million years ago.
Lucy (Australopithecus)
| Catalog no. | AL 288-1 |
|---|
| Common name | Lucy |
| Species | Australopithecus afarensis |
| Age | 3.2 million years |
| Place discovered | Afar Depression, Ethiopia |
The first human ancestors appeared between five million and seven million years ago, probably when some apelike creatures in Africa began to walk habitually on two legs. They were flaking crude stone tools by 2.5 million years ago. Then some of them spread from Africa into Asia and Europe after two million years ago.
Who is Turkana Boy? He is the Homo erectus whose (almost) complete skeleton was found by Richard Leakey's team near Lake Turkana in the mid-1980s.
Bones of primitive Homo sapiens first appear 300,000 years ago in Africa, with brains as large or larger than ours. They're followed by anatomically modern Homo sapiens at least 200,000 years ago, and brain shape became essentially modern by at least 100,000 years ago.
