21 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
The Laetoli Footprints
team of paleoanthropologists led by Mary Leakey confirmed the
bipedality of A. afarensis with another remarkable find in Tanzania: the
famous “Laetoli footprints.” In 1976, Andrew Hill and another member
of the team were taking a break by indulging in a favorite field pastime:
pelting each other with chunks of dried elephant dung. Looking for
ammunition in a dry stream bed, Hill stumbled upon a line of fossilized
footprints. After careful excavation, the footprints turned out to be an
... 1 
notes
notesNot only do these prints demonstrate A. afarensis could walk upright, but the nature of their preservation, having been made in volcanic ash and their proximity to one another, paints a image of two ancestors huddling together in an ashen landscape.
21 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Australopithecus afarensis' Hip Bone Indicates She Could ...
When Lucy’s hundreds of fragments were assembled, she turned out
to be a female of a new species, Australopithecus afarensis, dating back
3.2 million years. She was between 20 and 30 years old, 3.5feet tall,
weighing a scant 60 pounds, and possibly afflicted with arthritis. But
most important, she walked on two legs.
How can we tell? From the way that the femur (thighbone) connects to
the pelvis at one end and to the knee at its other. In a bipedally
walking primate like ourselves, the fem... 1 notes
notesThe bone tilts to bring the knees inward, like it does in humans, but not in chimps, who waddle because they are bow-legged.
