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Skeletal Findings And Their Impact On Anthropology Essay

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Important Skeletal Findings and their Impact on Anthropology Biological, (also known as physical) anthropology works to identity species, mainly through the analysis of bones, and teeth, and strives to further learn about their way of life. In anthropology today many scientific discoveries have been made through skeletal findings in the field. Although, from the many discoveries that have been made there are a few that stand out as having ground breaking effects for the world of biological anthropology. Such findings include, the Taung child who displayed signs of early human bipedalism, Lucy, which gave rise to the species of Australopithecus afarensis, and Turkana boy, which is the most complete Homo erectus skeleton. Anthropology has worked to answer questions about human evolution and our early ancestors. The Taung child, Lucy, and the Turkana boy have all provided anthropologists with scientific proofs and evidence that will help to further understand our ancestry.

Discovered in 1924 the Taung child gave rise the genus Australopithecus . A mining company (Northern Lime) was directed to send any intriguing fossils found to Raymond Dart .This was an interesting request, but it came to be by a student of Darts informing him of a family friend who had a rare baboon skull that was found at this mining site in Taung . The skull (later named the Taung Child) arrived to Raymond Dart from the mining company in 1924 and after careful examination he named the new species

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