Earliest Evidence Of Hereditary Genetic Disorder Discovered

The discovery of what is believed to be the oldest evidence yet found of a human hereditary genetic disorder has been announced by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The researchers are Dr. Uri Zilberman and Patricia Smith, the Joel Wilbush Professor of Medical Anthropology, both of the Faculty of Dental Medicine of the Hebrew University and Dr. Silvana Condemi a senior researcher at the French Research Institute in Jerusalem. They are among the authors of an article in the June issue of the Journal of Human Evolution that details the finding of a disease known as amelogenesis imperfecta in the teeth of a fossil found in archaeological excavations in Ethiopia. The fossil is dated as 1.5 million years old and is from a two-year-old Homo erectus child. Homo erectus was a precursor of modern man.