The Nariokotome (Turkana) Boy and the modern human body plan
- Date
- c. 1.6 million years ago
- Category
- Science, technology & invention
- Region
- East Africa (Kenya)
- Era
- Prehistory
- Significance
In 1984, a team led by Richard Leakey and Kamoya Kimeu recovered a near-complete juvenile skeleton, KNM-WT 15000, at Nariokotome near Lake Turkana, Kenya, dated to roughly 1.5–1.6 million years ago.
The 'Turkana Boy' is the most complete early Homo erectus (or Homo ergaster) skeleton ever found and offers an unmatched window onto early human anatomy. He shows tall, long-limbed, narrow-hipped proportions adapted to efficient striding bipedalism and to dissipating heat in open, hot environments — essentially the modern human body plan, very different from the shorter, tree-climbing australopithecines. His brain, around 880 cubic centimetres and growing toward perhaps 910 cc in adulthood, was markedly larger than earlier hominins yet still well below the modern average. The skeleton reveals a narrow birth canal and clues to growth and life history, fuelling debate over how fast erectus children matured and whether language and prolonged childhood had begun to emerge. Turkana Boy crystallises the moment when our ancestors became committed, fully terrestrial walkers built for endurance and long-distance travel.
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Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Science
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