What kind of australopithecus is lucy

In contrast, the only damage we see on Lucy's bones is a single carnivore tooth puncture mark on the top of her left pubic bone. This is what is called a perimortem injury, one occurring at or around the time of death. If it occurred after she died but while the bone was still fresh, then it may not be related to her death. There are several indicators which give a fair idea of her age. All the ends of her bones had fused and her cranial sutures had closed, indicating completed skeletal development.

Her vertebrae show signs of degenerative disease, but this is not always associated with older age. All these indicators, when taken together, suggest that she was a young, but fully mature, adult when she died.

Because of the rare and fragile nature of many fossils, including hominids, molds are often made of the original fossils. The molds are then used to create detailed copies, called casts, which can be used for teaching, research, and exhibits. The hominid-bearing sediments in the Hadar formation are divided into three members.

Lucy was found in the highest of these—the Kada Hadar or KH—member. With a mixture of ape and human features—including long dangling arms but pelvic, spine, foot, and leg bones suited to walking upright—slender Lucy stood three and a half feet centimeters tall. Recreations based on other A. Inspired by repeated playings of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" at a celebratory party on the day the specimen was found, researchers gave it the Beatles' mod moniker.

Lucy's size gives her away as a female. Later fossil discoveries established that A. A number of factors point to Lucy being fully grown. For one thing, her wisdom teeth, which were very humanlike, were exposed and appear to have been in use for a while before her death. In addition, the sections of her skull—separated in children—had grown together. The remarkably complete "Lucy's baby" skeleton, announced on September 20, , is about a hundred thousand years older than Lucy herself.

The A. All rights reserved. What did Lucy look like? At the time, Au. Researchers studied injuries to Lucy's bones to see whether they offered insights into how she died, publishing their findings in CT scans revealed fractures in her shoulder joint and arms similar to those observed in people who fall from a great height, as if she reached out to break her fall. They also indicated that many of the breaks occurred perimortem, around the time of death, rather than over time as the bones became fossilised.

The researchers believe the injuries observed were severe enough that internal organs could also have been damaged. Based on their evidence, the team suggest that Lucy died falling out of a tree. However, this conclusion is controversial and many scientists, including Johanson, say there are other plausible explanations for the breakages, such as being trampled by stampeding animals after death.

Prof Donald Johanson, discoverer of Lucy and other Australopithecus afarensis fossils, face-to-face with the skull of another early hominin.

The top of its skull the cranial vault was slightly domed and its brain was comparable in size to a chimpanzee's. Its face projected outwards, less so in females than in males. Some Au. Australopithecus afarensis skulls show the species had a brain the size of a chimpanzee's, a projecting face and powerful jaw muscles, used for chewing hard or tough plant material. This replica is on display at Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The small skull, long arms and conical ribcage were like an ape's, while the spine, pelvis and knees were more human-like.

The smallest Au. This is a broad range, pointing to high sexual dimorphism - the difference in size and shape between males and females. Modern humans have a low level of sexual dimorphism and the two sexes look very similar, whereas gorillas are very sexually dimorphic. The difference between Au. In some members of the species the tooth rows diverge slightly towards the back, forming a dental arcade the part of the mouth where teeth sit that is neither parallel-sided as in modern apes nor more rounded as in humans.

Australopithecus afarensis jaw replica. Exhibit in the Arppeanum, Helsinki. Image courtesy of Daderot [ CC0 1. The canine teeth of Au. The canine premolar honing complex has been completely lost - this is a feature present in chimpanzees and other apes outside of the hominin lineage, where the large and projecting upper canine teeth are sharpened against the lower third premolars.

All known modern and fossil apes have this honing complex. Its absence, along with the presence of bipedalism, is thought to be characteristic of species on the hominin lineage. The 3. You can see it in the Human Evolution gallery.

However, it may not have walked in exactly the same way as we do or been able to walk long distances efficiently. Anatomical features associated with upright walking are present in the spine, pelvis, legs and feet. These include a broad pelvis and a femur that is angled inwards towards the knee so that the centre of gravity lies directly above the foot.

Reconstruction of Lucy's pelvis in the National Museum of Ethiopia. The broad pelvis of Australopithecus afarensis is an adaptation to upright walking. Lucy and her species also retained some adaptations for climbing and hanging from trees. These features are seen in the shoulders, arms, wrists and hands.

It is likely that the species, particularly the smaller females, spent a significant amount of time moving around in trees. The larger males were probably less arboreal. Chimpanzees and other apes are known to build nesting platforms in tree canopies. The site of Laetoli in Tanzania preserves the oldest known hominin footprints. Nearly 3.

Rain created a surface like wet cement and, before it hardened, a variety of animals wandered across it. Further eruptions covered the footprints they left behind, preserving them for posterity. Finally, Lucy was molded and cast in silicone. Finishing touches included painting the work and individually implanting natural-looking hair with a special needle. A hidden metal armature supports the completed reconstruction from within.

The two new representations of Lucy were created under the direction of Haile-Selassie.