Australopithecus afarensis

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Ancient Lucy Could've Walked Much Like Us
Ancient Lucy
Had Some Pretty
Powerful Legs
NEW STUDY

Ancient Lucy Had Some Pretty Powerful Legs

Knee extensor muscles were like modern humans', meaning she could have walked like us: researcher

(Newser) - Part of the reason the human ancestor known as Lucy is so famous is that her bones, discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, indicated her hominin species, Australopithecus afarensis, was among the first to walk on two legs more than 3 million years ago. But what would her long-vanished muscles tell...

This Could Change Theory on the Origin of Humankind

Australopithecus africanus fossils in South Africa are a million years older than we thought

(Newser) - The earliest species of human is thought to have evolved from East Africa based on fossil findings, including that of the famous Lucy, an Australopithecus afarensis who lived in what is now Ethiopia some 3.2 million years ago. But that theory might now be shifting thanks to new findings...

Ancient Human Ancestor Was One Tall Dude, Footprints Say

And it hints that he may have had a gorilla-like harem

(Newser) - He stood a majestic 5-foot-5, weighed around 100 pounds, and maybe had a harem. That's what scientists figure from the footprints he left behind some 3.7 million year ago, the AP reports. He's evidently the tallest known member of the prehuman species best known for the fossil...

Ape With a Knife Changes Human History

Carved bones found in Africa show Stone Age began a million years earlier

(Newser) - It turns out that human ape Australopithecus afarensis Lucy likely used some kind of stone knife to eat meat 800,000 years earlier than previously thought, which has suddenly cast human history in a new light. The discovery of fossil animal bones showing evidence of being butchered 3.4 million...

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