ABSTRACT
The nearly complete skeleton KNM-WT 15000 foundat Nariokotome III by Kamoya Kimeu is one of the truly great discoveries in paleoanthropology. Eugene Dubois found the first Homo erectus in 1891, but up until 1971 only isolated parts of skeletons had been found in Asia and Africa. Meave Leakey found a fragmentary partial skeleton (KNM-ER 803) near Ileret, Lake Turkana, in 1971 and, although we did not know it at the time, this specimen was the first to include associated dental and postcranial material of H. erectus. The next year Kamoya Kimeu discovered the first associated bones of a single diseased individual (KNM-ER 1808); this specimen was more complete, but the long bones were covered with a surface layer of bone owing to a bout of periostitis. Although it was an interesting case for paleopathology (Walker et al., 1982), the fact that the individual had suffered the disease made comparative studies very difficult.
