Stone Age Humans Often Squatted
- From: "Marc Verhaegen" <fa204466@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 23:06:47 +0100
Stone Age Humans Often Squatted
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News 12.12.05
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20051212/squatting_arc.html
Three toe bones found in a South African cave reveal that humans 100,000
years ago frequently squatted, according to a team of anthropologists who
analyzed the bones.
The discovery suggests that Middle Stone Age humans, along with a possible
human ape ancestor, already were engaged in some kind of agricultural work
at this relatively early phase in human history.
"If this activity (squatting) is done for long periods of time with some
regularity, the (bone) surfaces that make contact become remodeled into what
are called 'squatting facets,' which are huge on our Klasies metatarsals
(foot bones)," said Jeffrey Schwartz, one of the scientists who analyzed the
bones.
Schwartz, an anthropology, history and philosophy of science professor at
the University of Pittsburgh, added, "Squatting is often associated with
agricultural activities, such as planting, weeding, etc."
Findings will be published in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Schwartz explained to Discovery News that when someone squats, "various
joints are 'squeezed' together in an extreme that brings bone surfaces into
contact with each other that otherwise would not," such as the bones that
link the lower legs to the feet and toes.
He and his colleagues examined bones that belonged to the big toe, second
toe, and pinky toe of two to three individuals who lived in South Africa
100,000 years ago.
They compared the bones, found at a site called Klasies River, to those of
other early humans along with data on members of existing South African
populations, such as the Zulu. The big toe and second toe bones fit within
the range of modern humans, although the second toe bone was on the high end
of the scale because it is very large.
The scientists believe the individual who possessed this second toe bone, if
male, would have been around 5'10". In the unlikely case that it belonged to
a female, she would have been 5'9".
The pinky bone, however, stood out as "morphologically unusual in all
comparisons." Its curved broad shaft and shape indicate to the researchers
that, while it most certainly belonged to the Homo genus, this individual
was not necessarily a modern human.
Schwartz said it could represent "something else entirely that went extinct
without issue."
G. Philip Rightmire, lead author of the paper and an anthropologist at
Binghamton University, told Discovery News, "In my view, the Klasies people
are almost modern, and one hypothesis is that the South African population
was evolving toward recent humans.
However, it is also quite possible that the Klasies group eventually died
out, without contributing to the ancestry of any living Homo sapiens."
While the identity of the Klasies residents remains in question, the
scientists agree that the individuals were all surprisingly large for the
time and that they frequently adopted a squatting posture.
Frederick Grine, chairman of the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook
University and a professor of anthropology and anatomical sciences, told
Discovery News that he believes the size and shape differences observed in
the toe bones indicate the bones belonged to at least one male and one
female Homo sapiens, and not to any other hominid species.
"This is just a strongly dimorphic early human population," he said.
What would they have been squatting for? agriculture?? collecting seafoods
at the beach? :-)
--Marc Verhaegen
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT
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