The human collarbone, or clavicle, is an important part of the body. Of course, it provides you with structure and support for everyday living, but for archeologists, it can also be used to gain key insights into our ancestors.

Looking at the bones of an ancient human ancestor, or even ancient animals, can tell researchers a lot about their body shape as well as things like what the person or animal did in life. A proper analysis of a clavicle can, researchers claim, help them to know how much climbing they did, their throwing power, the level of manual dexterity, and more.

This is all done by looking at the size, shape, strength, wear, and other factors related to the bone itself.

With this in mind, researchers took the collarbone of a hominid that was found in East Africa to study it. The bone was discovered in 2005 and is estimated to be about 1.8 million years old. Interestingly, however, it is roughly the same length and has a very similar curvature to what is found in modern men today.

While it is known that ancient hominids were shorter and smaller than modern humans, this find indicates that they were likely just as broad at the shoulders and chest as modern people.

This was written in a paper, which is available in preprint on BioRxiv. While the paper has not yet been peer reviewed, it is offering important insights into the potential evolutionary path of the ancestors of humans. The authors of the paper wrote:

“This finding indicates that there has been little morphological change in the hominid clavicle in the last ~2 million years. It also suggests that shoulder breadth (though not necessarily body size) may have been similar to modern humans as far back as 1.8 [million years ago].”

To help further confirm their findings, during the study the researchers also compared the bone to those of gorillas, chimpanzees, and baboons that came from modern samples. The bones were also compared to other known bones from human ancestors including Neanderthals, Homoerectus, and more.

If confirmed, this study could change the way many look at ancient human ancestors physical appearance. Of course, their physical appearance will also have an impact on what they were able to do, so this could give researchers a better picture of what day to day life may have looked like at the time.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about the mysterious “pyramids” discovered in Antarctica. What are they?