archaeology

Getting to know you . . . Getting to know Australopithecines

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Lucy

I just love our fascinating little ancestors, the Australopithecines.

Who are they, you ask? Have you heard of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis)? She is perhaps the most famous of her genus. In her, we see traits that strongly suggest bipedalism.

Read more about them in Archaeology’s The Human Mosaic.

A new dating technique has put an Australopithecus prometheus skeleton at 3.67 million years old.

Truly amazing stuff!

Two Halves of Sea Turtle Bone Found 163 Years Apart

This is a really exciting palentological find:

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-turtle-bone-found-in-1800s-20140325,0,3960640.story

The turtle is said to have been just under ten feet long from nose to tail. So unless the diver in the “artist’s rendition” is a little over three feet tall, the graphic is not to scale (see image below).

Quick mock-up for scale.

Quick mock-up for scale.

Still, I’d have to say that ten feet makes for a truly large turtle!

I wish I could see this humerus in person.