Hello my lovely readers! Well here it is! First “kind of” post. I know this blog is supposed to be about women of history and their accomplishments but I think that because the oldest human remains are both of the female gender, they deserve an honorable mention. So here we go!
The oldest remains of what has been agreed are our ancestors are approximately 3 million years old. Both the females you will, hopefully, read about were found in modern day Ethiopia a few miles apart. The elder is Lucy, the younger was named Selam, and are affectionately known as mother and daughter even though Selam is about 100,000 years older than Lucy.
But before I really get into our two females in the limelight, I think first we should see the world they lived in – or try to. Now most ancient history, particularly history before any form of records existed, is mostly speculation and a 99.99% chance it may or may not be right. But on the chance that the information I found is right, the world Lucy and Selam lived in was not very different from ours.
The animals that inhabited the planet were of a larger scale but they still looked very similar to ours. The mountains and oceans existed and were set – the sea level was about 70 feet higher and the average temperature of the planet was about 2 degrees Celsius hotter – but for the most part it was the same.
It was also around this time that a particular plant really started to change the landscape — grass — and as such the lush forests started giving way to grasslands. The environment was changing and it was the hominids that evolved to walk on two legs that were able to leave the trees and take their first steps up the ladder of evolution. The ability to walk on two legs also let them travel from place to place at a quicker pace and the higher line of sight helped them see predators from over the tall grass. Free hands also allowed them to start learning to use basic tools.
Selam and Lucy are both categorized as Australopithecus afarenis – considered the closest relatives to the genus Homo. It is widely agreed upon that they were creatures that adapted to living in a group and were hunter-gatherers, as well as scavengers. Their diets consisted of plants, fruits, nuts, seed, and on occasion meat and eggs. Hominids were not at the top of the food chain – they were prey – and when meat was found they had to hurry before other more dangerous animals got to it. It is thanks to meat that the brains of the hominids, at the time only the size of a chimpanzee’s, were able to grow and evolve.
Let’s start with the younger of the two ladies — Selam. Selam was found in northeastern Ethiopia by an expedition led by paleoanthropologist Zeresenay Alemseged. Tilahun Gebreselassie saw the baby’s face first and after meticulous and careful excavation that took about 5 years, a tiny bundle of bones was unearthed. They named her Selam, after the Ethiopian word for peace.
Based on the layers of Earth she was discovered in, scientists believe her cause of death may have been a flood caused by the Awash River. The baby was buried under pebbles and sand resulting from the flood.
An analysis of the baby’s body revealed that her lower half was very human — her big toes were not opposable like those of her chimpanzee counterparts — but her upper body was more chimpanzee than human, including the curved finger bones almost as long as a chimpanzee’s suited for life in trees. Upon an analysis of her shoulder blades, scientists were finally able to really answer the question that Lucy could not. Although Lucy’s shoulder blades resembled shoulder blades of a modern ape more than a human, it wasn’t until Selam’s two almost intact shoulder blades were studied — for 11 years I might add — that a more definite conclusion was able to be made. Selam’s shoulder blades resemble those of a young gorilla, like Lucy’s, and scientists were able to conclude that, at this point in human history, our ancestors were still swinging from trees. The shoulder blades on Selam, provided the compelling evidence that she and Lucy were more than likely tree dwellers as well as bipedal travelers. It was also safe to conclude that because Selam’s big toes were not opposable — as opposed to modern primates that used them to grab onto their mothers while they forage and move about — she needed more care and attention, like a human child. This also supports the theory that our ancestors Australopithecus afarensis, were social creatures, the mother depending on her group mates to help her care and feed the baby.
One last thing that I want to mention about Selam is that her brain size was maybe the first time human evolution really branched off in the development of the brain. Scientists discovered that although Selam was more chimp-like in her upper body, her brain development was unusually slow for that of a chimpanzee. They saw it was more in line with the rate of brain growth for a human. It is speculated this could possibly be the precursor to human evolution, by the brain development slowing down.
Now onto Lucy, the more famous of the two. Lucy was found by paleontologist Donald C. Johanson in Ethiopia. It is widely agreed that Lucy — along with having her long arms and curled fingers for swinging on trees — was about 3.5 feet tall and an adult. It was deduced by the fact that her wisdom teeth were exposed and appeared to have been used for quite some time by the time of her death. Unfortunately, not much is known about Lucy but it can be assumed that she probably lived the life Selam did not have the chance to live. She probably lived in a group of Australopithecus afarensis with an alpha male; she may have been the alpha female and had his favor? She may also have had some babies — did they all survive or did one succumb to disease or predators? She probably slept in the trees at night and walked on the ground to travel from wooded area to wooded area. Maybe at one point in her lifetime — or multiple — her group was chased off their territory by a rival group of Australopithecus and she had to travel that while on two legs, able to cover more ground quicker. Did she have a baby on one of these treks?
There is still no real answer as to how Lucy died. There were no marks on her skeleton that scientists have concluded were made before death. Perhaps she died of natural causes? Did she fall ill? Did Lucy leave behind a baby to fend for itself? If she did, did the baby make it or did it meet a brutal end like Selam? All these questions are just up for speculation; they’re mostly questions I asked myself the more I learned about these two females and I would like to know one day. Unfortunately, we may never really know the answers but it’s nice to ponder them and, because I am a writer, I like giving them my own story.
We are still too early in human development for our prehistoric ancestors to grieve for the dead. It won’t be for another few million years that our beginnings will be able to develop their brain enough to be able to develop abstract thought with the Neanderthals.
Thank you so much for reading guys! I really appreciate it! Follow me on twitter or my blog! Expect a post every 2 weeks on Sunday! I truly appreciate your support and welcome any feedback! If you have a specific woman you want me to write about in history, let me know, and I will add that woman to my list when I get to her time period. I am going in chronological order here so I have a WAYS to go! I can’t wait to continue this journey with you guys and thank you so much for your support! Always with Love, Georgina.
WORKS CITED
N.A. Chapter 12: The Lives of Early Hominids. Retrieved from http://www.wwnorton.com/college/anthro/bioanth/ch12/chap12.htm
N.A. Chapter 5: Introduction to the Primates. Retrieved from http://www.wwnorton.com/college/anthro/bioanth/ch5/welcome.htm
Choi, Charles Q. (2012, October 25). Early Human ‘Lucy’ Swung from the Trees. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/24297-early-human-lucy-swung-from-trees.html
Choi, Charles Q. (2006, September 20). Most Ancient Child Unearthed. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/1004-ancient-child-unearthed.html
Reuters (2012, April 15). Climate change scientists look back – 3 million years – to look to future. Retrieved from http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/04/15/11209341-climate-change-scientists-look-back-3-million-years-to-look-to-future
Bartlett, K. (Writer), & James, J. (Director). (2001). Next of Kin [Television series episode]. In J. James (Producer), Walking with Beasts. United Kingdom: BBC Worldwide.
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