Researchers only had 40% of Lucy’s skeleton so they used comparison and inferring as a technique to reconstruct Lucy. While putting together Lucy’s skeleton, researchers found out that she was very small and an adult. They decided to use a modern human skeleton to infer some of the missing pieces. The team filled in some of the missing parts using other fossils and making a physical model of the skeleton which they would use as a basis of the reconstruction (Prehistoric Autopsy video). Professor Robin Crompton used a series of footprint trails from the Laetoli area to find more information about bipedalism of afarensis. He then compared those footprints to human footprints and found out that Lucy walked upright. They also used animations to demonstrate how Lucy would of have had walked. There would be a slight swing of the hips because the hip itself is broader (Prehistoric Autopsy video).
In the animation, they tried to show that Australopithecus afarensis would had walked halfway between a chimpanzee and a modern human (Prehistoric Autopsy video). Looking at her knees and pelvis demonstrated that she spent most of the time walking on the ground. Gabriele Macho researched the biggest bone of the wrist to find out more information about Australopithecus afarensis and their climbing (Prehistoric Autopsy video).She figured out that chimpanzees had a pattern near their little finger while humans had a pattern near the thumb. The most interesting thing was that in afarensis, the patterns are traveling towards the thumb’s side. This means that Australopithecus afarensis were mainly using the terrestrial habitat. Lucy’s kind was spending less time in trees (Prehistoric Autopsy video). In the lecture it is mentioned that Lucy still had curved fingers and was utilizing trees, but she has a human skeleton and a chimp face and brain (class lecture 9). Evidence that Lucy was bipedal was found due to a bone. Don Johanson found a bone that looked like the end of someone’s thigh bone which had the characteristic angle of the shaft. Humans have an angle on that bone too which allows us to walk on two legs (Prehistoric Autopsy video). By finding a bone that was similar in structure as the one we have, justified that Lucy could also walk on two legs and was part of our human family tree. Another piece of evidence that Lucy and Australopithecines were bipedal was found through footprints (Prehistoric Autopsy video). After using a laser scanner they found out that the footprint had a large, deeper impression under the heel. This is a …show more content…
The birth canal is also different in humans and chimpanzees. Human’s birth canal is wide at the top and then long at the mid-plane in the middle (Prehistoric Autopsy video). It is also round at the outlet. In the other hand, chimpanzees’ birth canals are long in all dimensions. The modifications in our pelvis for locomotion have affected childbirth. Lucy’s pelvis is small but it looks more like a modern human pelvis than it does like a chimpanzee (Prehistoric Autopsy video). Lucy’s birth canal is different than the birth canal from a modern human because she didn’t have to give birth to a large-brained baby. Walking upright on two legs caused Lucy’s childbirth to be more difficult. The baby probably couldn’t twist and turn during childbirth, while human babies can actually do this (Prehistoric Autopsy
In the animation, they tried to show that Australopithecus afarensis would had walked halfway between a chimpanzee and a modern human (Prehistoric Autopsy video). Looking at her knees and pelvis demonstrated that she spent most of the time walking on the ground. Gabriele Macho researched the biggest bone of the wrist to find out more information about Australopithecus afarensis and their climbing (Prehistoric Autopsy video).She figured out that chimpanzees had a pattern near their little finger while humans had a pattern near the thumb. The most interesting thing was that in afarensis, the patterns are traveling towards the thumb’s side. This means that Australopithecus afarensis were mainly using the terrestrial habitat. Lucy’s kind was spending less time in trees (Prehistoric Autopsy video). In the lecture it is mentioned that Lucy still had curved fingers and was utilizing trees, but she has a human skeleton and a chimp face and brain (class lecture 9). Evidence that Lucy was bipedal was found due to a bone. Don Johanson found a bone that looked like the end of someone’s thigh bone which had the characteristic angle of the shaft. Humans have an angle on that bone too which allows us to walk on two legs (Prehistoric Autopsy video). By finding a bone that was similar in structure as the one we have, justified that Lucy could also walk on two legs and was part of our human family tree. Another piece of evidence that Lucy and Australopithecines were bipedal was found through footprints (Prehistoric Autopsy video). After using a laser scanner they found out that the footprint had a large, deeper impression under the heel. This is a …show more content…
The birth canal is also different in humans and chimpanzees. Human’s birth canal is wide at the top and then long at the mid-plane in the middle (Prehistoric Autopsy video). It is also round at the outlet. In the other hand, chimpanzees’ birth canals are long in all dimensions. The modifications in our pelvis for locomotion have affected childbirth. Lucy’s pelvis is small but it looks more like a modern human pelvis than it does like a chimpanzee (Prehistoric Autopsy video). Lucy’s birth canal is different than the birth canal from a modern human because she didn’t have to give birth to a large-brained baby. Walking upright on two legs caused Lucy’s childbirth to be more difficult. The baby probably couldn’t twist and turn during childbirth, while human babies can actually do this (Prehistoric Autopsy