%0 Journal Article
%A Le Cabec, Adeline
%A Colard, Thomas
%A Charabidze, Damien
%A Chaussain, Catherine
%A Di Carlo, Gabriele
%A Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Sabine
%A Hublin, Jean-Jacques
%A Melis, Rita T.
%A Pioli, Laura
%A Ramirez-Rozzi, Fernando
%A Mussi, Margherita
%+ Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society
Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society
%T Insights into the palaeobiology of an early Homo infant: multidisciplinary investigation of the GAR IVE hemi-mandible, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia :
%G eng
%U https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-8B08-2
%R 10.1038/s41598-021-02462-1
%7 2021-11-29
%D 2021
%8 29.11.2021
%* Review method: peer-reviewed
%X Childhood is an ontogenetic stage unique to the modern human life history pattern. It enables the
still dependent infants to achieve an extended rapid brain growth, slow somatic maturation, while
benefitting from provisioning, transitional feeding, and protection from other group members. This
tipping point in the evolution of human ontogeny likely emerged from early Homo. The GAR IVE
hemi‑mandible (1.8 Ma, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia) represents one of the rarely preserved early Homo
infants (~ 3 years at death), recovered in a richly documented Oldowan archaeological context. Yet,
based on the sole external inspection of its teeth, GAR IVE was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease–
amelogenesis imperfecta (AI)–altering enamel. Since it may have impacted the child’s survival, this
diagnosis deserves deeper examination. Here, we reassess and refute this diagnosis and all associated
interpretations, using an unprecedented multidisciplinary approach combining an in‑depth analysis
of GAR IVE (synchrotron imaging) and associated fauna. Some of the traits previously considered
as diagnostic of AI can be better explained by normal growth or taphonomy, which calls for caution
when diagnosing pathologies on fossils. We compare GAR IVE’s dental development to other fossil
hominins, and discuss the implications for the emergence of childhood in early Homo
%J Scientific Reports
%V 11
%] 23087
%@ 2045-2322