Lucy was apparently fertile!

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

All,

The following just popped up on the BBC:

'Lucy's baby' found in Ethiopia

The 3.3-million-year-old fossilised remains of a human-like child have been unearthed in Ethiopia's Dikika region.

The female bones are from the species Australopithecus afarensis, which is popularly known from the adult skeleton nicknamed "Lucy".

Scientists are thrilled with the find, reported in the journal Nature.

They believe the near-complete remains offer a remarkable opportunity to study growth and development in an important extinct human ancestor.

Click HERE for the full article.

I'll check Nature, for more, in a little while.

Jacques

[Daryl Habel]

See today's Nature Web Focus at:
http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/hominiddevelopment/index.html

which has a video and a podcast, in addition to references to the Nature article by Alamseged et al. (only the abstract and supplementary information is available free to non-subscribers), an article by Wynn et al (only abstract free) on the palaeontological and geological context of the discovery, but most accessible are _free access articles_ by Bernard Wood at:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7109/full/443278a.html

and two free access articles by Rex Dalton, the first on the new discovery at:
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060918/full/060918-5.html

and the second a piece on Maurice Taieb, who is a "geological legend" for his work in the Afar of Ethiopia since 1966 (before "Lucy"), at:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7109/full/443268a.html

Dar

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

See today's Nature Web Focus at:
http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/hominiddevelopment/index.html

which has a video and a podcast, in addition to references to the Nature article by Alamseged et al. (only the abstract and supplementary information is available free to non-subscribers), an article by Wynn et al (only abstract free) on the palaeontological and geological context of the discovery, but most accessible are _free access articles_ by Bernard Wood at:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7109/full/443278a.html

and two free access articles by Rex Dalton, the first on the new discovery at:
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060918/full/060918-5.html

and the second a piece on Maurice Taieb, who is a "geological legend" for his work in the Afar of Ethiopia since 1966 (before "Lucy"), at:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7109/full/443268a.html

Dar

Well, you beat me to this one. I had just found time to work on my own little compendium, but what you've come up will certainly do. Without necessarily expecting the feeding frenzy that is occurring elsewhere in various palaeoanthropologically inclined sites, it is to be hoped that there will be some feedback from a few Forum members .

Jacques