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.
Dr Ashleigh Wiseman has 3D-modelled 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, it has been reported, 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.
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 (https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.230356).
That Lucy walked upright indicates that, in fact, she was no ape, and indeed was more like modern humans. The finding supports the position of those like Atlantis Rising columnist Michael Cremo that there have been modern humans on Earth for millions of years, much longer that is maintained by traditional Darwinian science. In his book Forbidden Archaeology Cremo uncovered extensive scientific evidence developed for over a century by many researchers which supports that view, but which has been swept aside by established academia.
Paleoanthropologists have agreed that Lucy was bipedal, but disagreed on how she walked. Some have argued that she moved in a crouching waddle, similar to chimpanzees.
Research in the last 20 years have 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.