Two recent recent discoveries , of a 1.7 million - year - old cancerous foot off-white and a 2 million - year - old vertebrae ravaged by tumors , show that cancer has been chafe us for a while . So it ’s not strictly a modern disease .
Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand ( Wits ) in Johannesburg discovered the 1.7 million - year - former cancerous foot in South Africa ’s Swartkrans Cave , a site renowned for its full-bodied archeologic treasures , especially patrimonial human cadaver . The exact mintage to which the pearl belonged to is still unidentified , but it belike came from a hominid , or two-footed human relative . In apaperpublished in the South African Journal of Science , the researchers say it ’s the oldest definitive grounds of malignant cancer in a proto - human .
The cancer was identified as an osteogenic sarcoma , an aggressive cancer that typically afflicts younger modern humans . If leave untreated , it can result in early death .
“ Due to its conservation we do n’t know whether the single cancerous base pearl belongs to an adult or child , nor whether the cancer induce the death of this individual , ” Bernhard Zipfel , a Wits scientist and carbon monoxide gas - generator of the study , aver in a statement . He said the cancer would have affected this soul ’s ability to walk or run , make those activities quite painful .
Ina related paperpublished in the same journal , a collaborate team of scientist line the oldest tumour ever find in the human fossil record book — a benign tumor found in the vertebrae of an Australopithecus sediba child , a well - study bipedal species . The bony tumors were uncovered in Malapa , also in South Africa , and are almost two million years old . Prior to this discovery , the oldest known hominin tumor was found in the rib of a Neanderthal dating back to around 120,000 days ago .
“ The comportment of a benignant tumour in Australopithecus sediba is fascinating not only because it is find in the back , an extremely rarified place for such a disease to evidence in mod humans , but also because it is found in a fry , ” head author Patrick Randolph - Quinney from the University of Central Lancashire said in a statement . “ This in fact is the first grounds of such a disease in a vernal somebody in the whole of the fossil human platter . ”
These find gainsay the modern assumption that Cancer and tumor are because of modern lifestyles and environments . “ [ Our ] studies show the origins of these diseases occurred in our ancient relatives millions of years before modernistic industrial society existed , ” said Edward Odes , a Wits scientist who contributed to both papers . The nature of malignant neoplastic disease and its extraction are clear more complex that we opine .
[ South African Journal of Science1,2 ]
ancient humansanthropologyArchaeologyBiologyCancerPaleontologyScience
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