“ Lucy , ” a truly iconic , prehistorical hominin fossil , is one of the most well - known scientific find of our time , and for serious reason . hump asAustralopithecus afarensis , this 1974 Ethiopian find will be well remember for revealing that she could take the air upright – albeit somewhat inefficiently – meaning thatbipedalismevolved at least 3.18 million year ago in our own species’evolutionary lineage .
A noteworthy newNaturestudy has throw some extra light on Lucy ’s demise . Despite being one of the most complete fossilized hominin skeletons ever found , it ’s not been entirely clear how she died , making her one of the oldestcold casesin prehistory . After a painstaking analysis of all her fractures , however , it appears she pall falling out of a tree , outstretching her arms in an attempt to make unnecessary herself as she took her final tumble .
“ Up until this metre , no one had ever before proposed a causa of expiry for Lucy , ” head authorJohn Kappelman , professor of hominoid palaeobiology and development at the University of Texas at Austin , recount IFLScience .
As fascinating as this is by itself , it also appears to confirm something that some researchers have theorise for a while now : Lucy was n’t just a dry land - walker , but arboreal – a tree - climber . Her death , therefore , believably came about because , unlike her ancestors , she could not go up tree as well any longer , and slipped and fell .
“ Our new hypothesis declare oneself indirect keep for this idea , ” Kappelman add together . “ How much fourth dimension , and how frequently did the climbing occur , well , we do n’t know at present . But have ’s assume for a moment that Lucy did nest in the trees at nighttime to avert vulture , just as chimpanzee do . ”
Lucy ’s distal spoke ( wrist ) undergo X - ray ( CT ) scanning . Marsha Miller , UT Austin
The mental process of determining which break were perimortem ( those that appeared near the metre of death ) and which were post-mortem ( after death ) was an incredibly unmanageable function . In arrangement with most paleontological enquiry , the squad concluded that most fractures were indeed postmortem , and were in all probability bring forth by geological and zoological processes that afflict many exercise of biological remains .
With the help of CT scanning technique , the squad reassess a few of these fractures and concluded that they resemble those in human patient whom have undergo a form of eminent - vim hurt , like an impact issue . These mostly occur today in those that are in an automobile accident or that descend from a substantial height . With the conception of such vehicles still over 3 million years away , this means that they must have been stimulate by a vertical gloam .
After these first berm break were place , the squad went through the fogey off-white - by - bone , joint - by - joint , until they jibe them up with others that had previously gone unnamed . It was percipient that a erect retardation event , as it ’s technically fuck , was the only rational account for her death .
Lucy was not ideally accommodate to living in tree diagram nor was she the respectable two - legged pedestrian , which entail that either a terrestrial predator or a fall was always probable to finish her off . Being a small puppet just1.07 meters(3.5 feet ) tall , conceal herself in trees would have been a good survival chemical mechanism against any aggressors , but she may have also been forage there .
Cracking the cold case . UT Liberal Artsvia YouTube
Precisely why she descend will likely always remain a enigma , and as there is only one example of her kind go from fall from a tree , some may say that this does n’t show that allA. afarensiswere wonted Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree - climber . Still , it ’s a distinguishable opening , and one that this paleontological CSI subject field has convey to the fore once more .
