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Scientists studying the bones of Ice Age children have challenged what we know about puberty.
Teenagers from 25,000 years ago went through similar stages as modern-day adolescents, the study found. This challenges the view that today’s children are entering puberty earlier, scientists have said.
Researchers analysed the ancient Ice Age bones of 13 people aged between 10 and 20.
They found most of these young people entered puberty by 13.5 years, reaching full adulthood between 17 and 22 years old.
This indicates these Ice Age adolescents started puberty at a similar time to teenagers in modern and wealthy countries, the researchers said.
Professor April Nowell, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Victoria in Canada, said: “Today, we have this sense that adolescents are entering puberty super early.
“It’s either because there are hormones in the milk or there are chemicals in the environment but actually our Ice Age teenagers are entering puberty at roughly the same age as teens today.
“And what that showed us is that, in fact, instead of our teens today being really anomalous, they are actually following a blueprint for when humans enter puberty that goes back thousands of years.”
For the study, published in the Journal Of Human Evolution, the researchers analysed specific markers in the bone associated with adolescence using techniques developed by Mary Lewis, from the University of Reading, to determine the age and sex of young people based on their bones.
One of the skeletons, called Romito 2, belonged to a 16-year-old male who lived in what is now southern Italy around 11,000 years ago and had a form of dwarfism.
His voice would be deeper, much like an adult male, and he would have been able to father children although he may still have appeared quite youthful with fine facial hair, the researchers said.
Prof Nowell said: “By analysing specific areas of the skeleton, we inferred things like menstruation and someone’s voice breaking.”
The team said the findings also shed light on the lives of these ancient people.
Prof Nowell said: “What we learned about teenagers (who lived) 25 to 40,000 years ago is that they were incredibly active members of their community.
“They were hunting, fishing and gathering and really helping their community to survive.”
She added: “It can sometimes be difficult for us to connect with the remote past but we all went through puberty even if we experienced it differently.
“Our research helps to humanise these teens in a way that simply studying stone tools cannot.”
