Possible Brucellosis in an Early Hominin Skeleton from Sterkfontein, South Africa

Abstract

We report on the paleopathological analysis of the partial skeleton of the late Pliocene hominin species Australopithecus africanus Stw 431 from Sterkfontein, South Africa. A previous study noted the presence of lesions on vertebral bodies diagnosed as spondylosis deformans due to trauma. Instead, we suggest that these lesions are pathological changes due to the initial phases of an infectious disease, brucellosis. The macroscopic, microscopic and radiological appearance of the lytic lesions of the lumbar vertebrae is consistent with brucellosis. The hypothesis of brucellosis (most often associated with the consumption of animal proteins) in a 2.4 to 2.8 million year old hominid has a host of important implications for human evolution. The consumption of meat has been regarded an important factor in supporting, directing or altering human evolution. Perhaps the earliest (up to 2.5 million years ago) paleontological evidence for meat eating consists of cut marks on animal remains and stone tools that could have made these marks. Now with the hypothesis of brucellosis in A. africanus, we may have evidence of occasional meat eating directly linked to a fossil hominin.

The changing Brucella ecology: novel reservoirs, new threats

“…After all, Brucella may actually be the oldest recognised bacterium, one that may have caused disease, recognisable even today, in hominins hundreds of thousands of years ago [6]. The disease has been perpetually present but ignored because it is a human and animal disease of the poor.…”

DiscordantBrucella melitensisAntigens Yield Cognate CD8+T Cells In Vivo

“…(8). Evidence of brucellosis also exists in the skeleton of a 2.4-to 2.8-million-year-old hominid (16). In areas of endemicity, domestic animal brucellosis severely affects regional economies, and vaccination campaigns cannot always reach nomadic herders.…”

Letter to the editor: Geochronology and palaeoenvironments of Southern African hominin‐bearing localities—A reply to Wrangham et al., 2009. “Shallow‐water habitats as sources of fallback foods for hominins”

“…Additional lines of evidence in support of significant meat consumption by the southern African hominins include butchery at Swartkrans (Pickering et al, 2008) and possible vertebral pathology relating to meat consumption (brucellosis) in Au. africanus from Sterkfontein (D'Anastasio et al, 2009). Direct evidence for termite foraging in southern Africa comes from bone tool morphology and wear associated with P. robustus (e.g., Backwell and d'Errico, 2001).…”