KNM-ER 1808

KNM-ER 1808

Exhibit item

Site: 

Koobi Fora, Kenya

Date of discovery: 

1974

Discovered by: 

Kamoya Kimeu

Age: 

About 1.7 million years old

Species: 

Homo erectus

Vitamin overdose

This 1.7 million-year-old femur (thigh bone) of a Homo erectus female shows how scientists can sometimes determine an individual’s cause of death, even after fossilization. An abnormal outer layer of bone on her thigh shows evidence of bleeding just before death. After consulting doctors and accounts of wilderness explorers, researchers concluded that an overdose of vitamin A—perhaps from eating a carnivore’s liver, which concentrates vitamin A—caused the bleeding and her death.

Image Credit: Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution