Earliest tuberculosis found in 1/2MIL-year-old human fossil

William Atkins
Saturday, 08 December 2007 20:48

Science - Biology

The abstract to their AJPA paper is: “Remains of fossil hominins from temperate regions of the Old World are rare across both time and space, but such specimens are necessary for understanding basic issues in human evolution including linkages between their adaptations and early migration patterns. We report here the remarkable circumstances surrounding the discovery of the first fossil hominin calvaria from Turkey. The specimen was found in the Denizli province of western Turkey and recovered from within a solid block of travertine stone as it was being sawed into tile-sized slabs for the commercial natural stone building market. The new specimen fills an important geographical and temporal gap and displays several anatomical features that are shared with other Middle Pleistocene hominins from both Africa and Asia attributed to Homo erectus.”

It continues, “It also preserves an unusual pathology on the endocranial surface of the frontal bone that is consistent with a diagnosis of Leptomeningitis tuberculosa (TB), and this evidence represents the most ancient example of this disease known for a fossil human. TB is exacerbated in dark-skinned peoples living in northern latitudes by a vitamin D deficiency because of reduced levels of ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Evidence for TB in the new specimen supports the thesis that reduced UVR was one of the many climatic variables presenting an adaptive challenge to ancient hominins during their migration into the temperate regions of Europe and Asia.”

The discovery by the anthropologist team helps to gain more knowledge about how TB came to infect humans early in their evolution. It may provide additional information on how to treat and prevent TB in the future. About one-third of the total world population has been exposed to the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, although most people never get signs of the disease. Medical professionals state that one new infection of TB occurs each second in humans.