Tuberculosis, an infectious disease that attacks lung, was discovered in mummies from Egypt and Peru that date to several thousand years ago.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacillus causing tuberculosis was identified and described in 1882 by Robert Koch, who has received the Nobel Prize for his discovery.

However, John Kappelman, professor of anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin, found the most ancient evidence of the disease in a 500,000-year-old human fossil from Turkey.

Kappelman, who is part of an international team of researchers from the United States, Turkey and German, has established that the fossil is of a young man believed to belong to the first human species to migrate out of Africa - Homo erectus.

The scientists discovered a series of small lesions etched into the bone of the cranium whose shape and location are characteristic of the Leptomeningitis tuberculosa, a form of tuberculosis that attacks the meninges of the brain.

According to Kappelman, the discovery of the new specimen suggests support for the theory that dark-skinned people who migrate northward from low, tropical latitudes produce less vitamin D, which can adversely affect the immune system as well as the skeleton. After moving north, the species had to adapt to increasingly seasonal climates.

The researchers hypothesize the young male’s body produced less vitamin D and this deficiency weakened his immune system, opening the door to tuberculosis.

“Skin color represents one of biology’s most elegant adaptations,” Kappelman said. “The production of vitamin D in the skin serves as one of the body’s first lines of defenses against a whole host of infections and diseases. Vitamin D deficiencies are implicated in hypertension, multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease and cancer.”

Photo Credit: Marsha Miller, the University of Texas at Austin