Credit: Dr. Ashleigh Wiseman
Digital modeling of legendary fossil’s soft tissue suggests Australopithecus afarensis had powerful leg and pelvic muscles suited to tree-dwelling, but knee muscles that allowed fully erect walking.
A Cambridge University researcher has digitally reconstructed the missing soft tissue of an early human ancestor – or hominin – for the first time, revealing a capability to stand as erect as we do today.
“Lucy’s muscles suggest that she was as proficient at bipedalism as we are.” — Dr. Ashleigh Wiseman
Dr. Ashleigh Wiseman has 3D-modeled the leg and pelvis muscles of the hominin Australopithecus afarensis using scans of ‘Lucy’: the famous fossil specimen discovered in Ethiopia in the mid-1970s.
Australopithecus afarensis was an early human species that lived in East Africa over three million years ago. Shorter than us, with an ape-like face and smaller brain, but able to walk on two legs, it adapted to both tree and savannah dwelling – helping the species survive for almost a million years.
Named for the Beatles classic ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’, Lucy is one of the most complete examples to be unearthed of any type of Australopithecus – with 40% of her skeleton recovered.
Digital modeling of legendary fossil’s soft tissue suggests Australopithecus afarensis had powerful leg and pelvic muscles suited to tree-dwelling, but knee muscles that allowed fully erect walking.
A Cambridge University researcher has digitally reconstructed the missing soft tissue of an early human ancestor – or hominin – for the first time, revealing a capability to stand as erect as we do today.
“Lucy’s muscles suggest that she was as proficient at bipedalism as we are.” — Dr. Ashleigh Wiseman
Dr. Ashleigh Wiseman has 3D-modeled the leg and pelvis muscles of the hominin Australopithecus afarensis using scans of ‘Lucy’: the famous fossil specimen discovered in Ethiopia in the mid-1970s.
Australopithecus afarensis was an early human species that lived in East Africa over three million years ago. Shorter than us, with an ape-like face and smaller brain, but able to walk on two legs, it adapted to both tree and savannah dwelling – helping the species survive for almost a million years.
Named for the Beatles classic ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’, Lucy is one of the most complete examples to be unearthed of any type of Australopithecus – with 40% of her skeleton recovered.
Credit: Dr. Ashleigh Wiseman
Wiseman was able to use recently published open-source data on the Lucy fossil to create a digital model of the 3.2 million-year-old hominin’s lower body muscle structure. The study is published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
The research recreated 36 muscles in each leg, most of which were much larger in Lucy and occupied greater space in the legs compared to modern humans.
For example, major muscles in Lucy’s calves and thighs were over twice the size of those in modern humans, as we have a much higher fat-to-muscle ratio. Muscles made up 74% of the total mass in Lucy’s thigh, compared to just 50% in humans.
Wiseman was able to use recently published open-source data on the Lucy fossil to create a digital model of the 3.2 million-year-old hominin’s lower body muscle structure. The study is published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
The research recreated 36 muscles in each leg, most of which were much larger in Lucy and occupied greater space in the legs compared to modern humans.
For example, major muscles in Lucy’s calves and thighs were over twice the size of those in modern humans, as we have a much higher fat-to-muscle ratio. Muscles made up 74% of the total mass in Lucy’s thigh, compared to just 50% in humans.
A 3D polygonal model, guided by imaging scan data and muscle scarring, reconstructing the lower limb muscles of the Australopithecus afarensis fossil AL 288-1, known as ‘Lucy’. In this model, the muscles have been color coded.
Credit: Dr. Ashleigh Wiseman
Paleoanthropologists agree that Lucy was bipedal, but disagree on how she walked. Some have argued that she moved in a crouching waddle, similar to chimpanzees – our common ancestor – when they walk on two legs. Others believe that her movement was closer to our own upright bipedalism.
Research in the last 20 years has seen a consensus begin to emerge for fully erect walking, and Wiseman’s work adds further weight to this. Lucy’s knee extensor muscles, and the leverage they would allow, confirm an ability to straighten the knee joints as much as a healthy person can today.
“Lucy’s ability to walk upright can only be known by reconstructing the path and space that a muscle occupies within the body,” said Wiseman, from Cambridge University’s McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
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