National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Ancient Deformed Children Not Always Killed by Parents


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The reconstructed skull of a 530,000-year-old early human child shows evidence of a rare birth defect known as craniosynostosis, in which the skull segments close too early, interfering with brain development.

The child lived to about the age of ten, according to a March 2009 study, suggesting that, contrary to popular belief, early humans might not have immediately abandoned or killed their abnormal offspring.

Photograph courtesy the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS