Bonelore
Menu
Famous fossilNariokotome, west of Lake Turkana, Kenya

KNM-WT 15000 (Turkana Boy)

Turkana Boy, also called the Nariokotome Boy, is the most complete skeleton of an early human ever found. He was a young Homo erectus who died about 1.5 million years ago and was already tall and long-legged.

Specimen label

KNM-WT 15000
Found
1984, by Kamoya Kimeu
Where
Nariokotome, west of Lake Turkana, Kenya
Age
about 1.5 to 1.6 million years
A reconstructed skeleton of Turkana Boy standing in a glass case at the National Museum in Nairobi
Photo: ProtoplasmaKid. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In lifeReconstruction of Turkana Boy, a slender young Homo erectus with very dark skin and loose wavy hair, walking through tall golden grass near Lake Turkana and looking back over his shoulder, with acacia trees and hills behind
Turkana Boy in life, walking through the grass near Lake Turkana about 1.5 million years ago. His face matches the reconstruction on the Homo erectus page. Reconstruction by Bonelore.

The skeleton in brief

Turkana Boy, catalogued KNM-WT 15000, is a skeleton of a young Homo erectus (sometimes called Homo ergaster) from about 1.5 to 1.6 million years ago. About 108 bones survive, making it the most complete early human skeleton known. The original 1985 description gave him as about 12 years old and already 1.68 metres tall. A later stature-at-death study puts his height when he died lower, at about 1.47 metres, and his adult height is a projection rather than a measurement. His brain was about 880 cubic centimetres.

The find

In 1984 Kamoya Kimeu, the leader of Richard Leakey’s team of fossil finders, spotted a piece of skull on the bank of the Nariokotome River, west of Lake Turkana in Kenya. Excavation over the following seasons uncovered much of a skeleton lying in the sand of an old river bed.

What he shows

  • A modern body. Long legs, a narrow pelvis and short arms, a body built for walking and running long distances. It is much closer to ours than to the australopiths.
  • How old he was. Estimates range from about 7 to 15 years, with many put at 9 to 12. Studies of his teeth point to the younger end, which suggests that erectus children grew up faster than ours.
  • Illness. Early reports saw signs of a disorder, but a later study found no skeletal disease. He had a damaged lower back and a diseased jaw, and an infection may have killed him.

Where he is

The skeleton belongs to the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi, where it is studied. Casts are shown in many museums.

Sources

  • Walker, A. and Leakey, R. (eds.) (1993). The Nariokotome Homo erectus Skeleton. Harvard University Press.
  • Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Human Origins Program. Homo erectus.

Back to all famous fossils