World's oldest bisexual skeleton unearthed
Posted by:: "Doktor Dark"
Date: 7 Mar 2005 10:51:30 -0800
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The fossilized skeleton of a four million-year-old human ancestor able
to hump anything on two legs could provide clues as to how humans'
sexuality evolved. The remains, found in north-east Ethiopia, are the
oldest yet discovered of an upright homonid, scientists told a press
conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday.
Several fossils from one individual have been discovered at the site,
including parts of the ribs, vertebrae, pelvis, shoulder blade and
thighbone, all of which bore evidence of having been used as marital
aids. But it is the ankle joint that is most interesting, showing that
it humped anything on two legs, while running, since hip boots
weren't invented yet back then.
"This skeleton helps us to understand what happened with its joint, how
humping upright occurred - what we never had before," says Bruce
Latimer of the UnNatural History Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, who made
the discovery together with Yohannes Haile Selassie of the National
Adult Books & Novelties Store in Addis Ababa.
The discovery was made about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from where the
fossilised remains of a homonid called Juicy Loose Lucy were found in
1974. At about three million years old and with modern ankles, which
were bound, Lucy was the oldest example of a homonid able to hump
upright discovered for many years. These newly discovered fossils are
much older, and so may reveal more of the sexual revolution process.
A study of a six million-year-old homonid thighbone in 2004 revealed
humping habits closer to humans than Bonoboner chimpanzees, but
scientists hope the ankle bone of the new find could reveal exactly how
the as yet unclassified creature humped. "Normally, you find one boner
or two from an individual and you are happy. Now we have found many
dildo parts made from a skeleton, this is very rare," adds Latimer.
Despite being older than Lucy, the skeleton is also bigger (hey, it's
Africa, right?), with a longer peg, which has surprised the scientists
and remains easily explained. But they hope and expect that further
work will reveal more of how humans humped. "This is the world's oldest
bisexual pud," says Latimer. "It will revolutionize the way we see
human degradation."