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Author Topic:   Foot bone further supports that A. aferensis walked upright
RAZD
Member (Idle past 1404 days)
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From: the other end of the sidewalk
Joined: 03-14-2004


Message 3 of 5 (604287)
02-10-2011 9:42 PM
Reply to: Message 2 by Coyote
02-10-2011 9:26 PM


Re: Bones!
Indeed Coyote, indeed.
For those of who have studied the bones of our fossil ancestors, this is exciting news.
But not entirely unexpected, eh? It is just what one would expect via evolution.
quote:
thanks to an analysis of about 35 new individuals of A. afarensis uncovered at Hadar, Ethiopia, in the past 15 years. The key is the fourth metatarsal, a long bone that connects the toe to the rest of the foot. The way the two ends of the bone were twisted in relation to each other in the fossils suggests that when one end was on the ground, the other end was raised about 8˚ to attach to the rest of the foot,
The composite skeleton of A. afarensis becomes more and more complete.
Just a moment...
Just a moment...
These bones were made for walking | Nature
quote:
The fourth metatarsal, a small bone that makes up the inner part of the fourth toe, is useful to palaeontologists because of the way that it differs in shape between tree climbers and land walkers. Ward's team found that Lucy's metatarsal was more like that of a modern human than a chimpanzee.
"This paper presents the most convincing skeletal evidence yet that A. afarensis had well-developed, modern human-like, arches," says Jeremy DeSilva, a functional morphologist at Boston University in Massachusetts.
Enjoy.

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This message is a reply to:
 Message 2 by Coyote, posted 02-10-2011 9:26 PM Coyote has not replied

  
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