In a 1st, ancient proteins reveal sex of human relative from 3.5 million years ago

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For the first time, researchers have used ancient proteins to establish the sex of an ancient human ancestor that lived approximately 3.5 million years ago, a newly released study reveals.

on Friday (Feb. 7).

a postdoctoral researcher in the Section for Geogenetics at the University of Copenhagen stated in an email to Live Science.

Only in recent times, though, have paleoanthropologists been able to extract these proteins from our fossil forebears.

(335,000 to 236,000 years ago). Paleoproteomics, they say in the study, can help researchers get a better understanding of how the different species were different. This would include working out the sex of these individuals, which isn't always easy because the skeletons are often fragmented.

Related: The famous Taung Child fossil from South Africa has been found to be 2.58 million years old, according to a new study.

The tooth came from a male individual.

was a human ancestor, making it the first ancient human found in Africa.

Although a recent study showed that proteins can be extracted from the fossils of early human-like creatures in South Africa that are up to 3 million years old, Madupe aims to extend the method to a broader range of locations and environments worldwide.

"These are all incredibly exciting breakthroughs that are on the verge of revolutionising our understanding of human evolution," the researchers wrote.