Kaufbeuren – On the Thursday before last, around 100 children, including some adults, filled the rows of seats in the culture workshop, which were rising like in a lecture hall.
Silent as a mouse, they attentively followed the slide show by Prof. Dr.
Madelaine Boehme (University of Tuebingen).
Prof. Böhme gave a child-friendly lecture on the exciting question of why "Udo" walked upright.
Professor Böhme used plastic replicas of the found bone fragments ("if they fall down and break, I'll be sad too, but not as much as with the real ones") and with easy-to-understand graphics, why the remains of Udo and three other great apes were found Finally allowing Udo's extinct species to have walked upright.
A comparison of the human bone structure with that of great apes proves that Udo, with partly human and partly simian skeletal features, represents the missing connection - the "missing link" - from the development of the ape to the human being.
For example, the 21 bone fragments that can be assigned to Udo from all body regions can be used to reconstruct both an S-shaped spine like in humans and a gripping foot like in chimpanzees.
Afterwards, Prof. Böhme patiently answered the children's interested and intelligent additional questions, for example about the climate at that time, Udo's diet or life in trees.
The Hammerschmiede clay pit is one of the richest fossil sites for vertebrates and is one of only three great ape sites in Germany.
There, Prof. Böhme and numerous enthusiastic helpers have not only excavated bones of Danuvius Guggenmosi since 2015, but also of 144 other animal species such as large fish, giant salamanders, turtles, birds and large and small mammals.
In addition, the determination of the age of the hammer mill bone finds at 11.6 million years moved the "cradle of mankind" from Africa, where it was previously assumed on the basis of finds 6 million years old, to the Allgäu.
After the event, Günther Marz, board member of the community foundation, distributed the first of four possible confirmations of attendance.
Marz had also brought his two offspring with him.
Their most important question was whether they would be allowed to help with the ongoing excavations in the future.
They may.
More appointments
Also (every Thursday, 4 p.m.) in the culture workshop as part of the children's university: On April 20th there will be "Industry 4.0 or how a shoe is made of it" with Prof. Dr.-Ing Dirk Jacob, on May 25th it will be called "Plastics researcher wanted" with Pia Wimmer and on June 26th Prof. Dr.
Claus Loos with the topic "Behind bars - how do you get into prison?"
