This almost complete skeleton of Homo erectus was discovered in 1984. It taught scientists a lot about human history.
Today Google Doodle highlighted the discovery of the Turkana Human in 1984, the earliest human skeleton ever discovered.
Next to a complete skeleton, the animated doodle illustrates dozens of bone fragments forming into a skull.
Turkana Human was also called Turkana Boy. His skeleton has educated researchers about the body size and shape of
Homo erectus, the oldest known early human with “modern human-like physical proportions,” according to
the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
He lived in central-eastern Africa about 1.6 million years ago.
According to the Smithsonian, he stood 5 feet, 3 inches (1.6 meters) tall and weighed
106 pounds (48 kilograms) when he was 11 – 12 years old.
The skeleton of Turkana Boy was discovered 37 years ago on the shores of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya by Kamoya Kimeu,
a famed fossil collector who collaborated with the famous Leakey family of paleontologists.
