Human Hair Found in Fossilized Hyena Dung
After finding human hair trapped inside some hyena feces, archaeologists are taking a deeper look at the contents of a prehistoric hyena sample they located a few years ago.
After finding human hair trapped inside some hyena feces, archeologists are taking a deeper look at the contents of a prehistoric hyena sample they located a few years ago.
The fossilized dung was uncovered in South Africa’s Gladysvale caves, a complex system that has yielded a number of other important finds, including rare hominid remains.
Gladysvale is part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
It’s estimated that the fossilized dung dates back about 257 thousand years.
The inclusions of human hair don’t fascinate them because a hyena ate a human – apparently that was not uncommon back then.
They’re intrigued by the insights the strands give into Homo sapiens’ African Savannah lifestyle.
Among the other hairs found in the samples were those of indigenous African animals, showing that early man shared their grasslands habitat with zebras and warthogs.
A lack of scaling on the Homo sapiens hair implies that they suffered from some type of malady. The researchers noted that the fossilised strands shared characteristics with those of one of their diabetic colleagues.
They also said the lack of scales could be indicative of the prehistoric hair’s donor spending quite a bit of time hanging around rocky crevices.
After finding human hair trapped inside some hyena feces, archeologists are taking a deeper look at the contents of a prehistoric hyena sample they located a few years ago.
The fossilized dung was uncovered in South Africa’s Gladysvale caves, a complex system that has yielded a number of other important finds, including rare hominid remains.
Gladysvale is part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
It’s estimated that the fossilized dung dates back about 257 thousand years.
The inclusions of human hair don’t fascinate them because a hyena ate a human – apparently that was not uncommon back then.
They’re intrigued by the insights the strands give into Homo sapiens’ African Savannah lifestyle.
Among the other hairs found in the samples were those of indigenous African animals, showing that early man shared their grasslands habitat with zebras and warthogs.
A lack of scaling on the Homo sapiens hair implies that they suffered from some type of malady. The researchers noted that the fossilised strands shared characteristics with those of one of their diabetic colleagues.
They also said the lack of scales could be indicative of the prehistoric hair’s donor spending quite a bit of time hanging around rocky crevices.
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