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"Lucy" Kin Pushes Back Evolution of Upright Walking

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  • 22-06-2010 1:36am
    #1
    marco_polo
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 10,079 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    An international team have discovered and analyzed a 3.6 million-year-old skeleton found in Ethiopia. The early hominid is 400,000 years older than the famous "Lucy" skeleton and is significantly larger in size. Importantly it reveals that advanced upright walking occurred much earlier in the evolutionary timeline than was previously thought. The partial skeleton also belongs to Lucy's species, Australopithecus afarensis.

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/100621-lucy-early-humans-walking-upright-science/

    A newfound male relative of the human ancestor "Lucy" supports the idea that walking upright evolved earlier than thought, a new study says.

    Lucy—a 3.2-million-year-old skeleton discovered in 1974—belongs to Australopithecus afarensis, a species which scientists think was an early direct ancestor of modern humans.

    An exceptionally petite female—her estimated height was 3.5 feet (1.1 meters)—Lucy's small frame has been interpreted as not being totally adapted for human-like, upright walking.

    (See: "6-Million-Year-Old Human Ancestor 1st to Walk Upright?")

    But the discovery of the 3.6-million-year-old male disproves that idea, said study co-author Yohannes Haile-Selassie, curator of physical anthropology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

    "As a result of this discovery, we can now confidently say that 'Lucy' and her relatives were almost as proficient as we are walking on two legs, and that the elongation of our legs came earlier in our evolution than previously thought," Haile-Selassie said in a statement.
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    #2
    caseyann
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,941 ✭✭✭caseyann


    marco_polo wrote: »
    An international team have discovered and analyzed a 3.6 million-year-old skeleton found in Ethiopia. The early hominid is 400,000 years older than the famous "Lucy" skeleton and is significantly larger in size. Importantly it reveals that advanced upright walking occurred much earlier in the evolutionary timeline than was previously thought. The partial skeleton also belongs to Lucy's species, Australopithecus afarensis.


    Couldnt that also prove that humans come from different species in the way of the one type evolving slower than other.If we want to call humans evolved in a lot of cases.I think they are reverting back.
    I have seen people who walk humped over alot more lately:D little attempt at humour :o


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