July 20, 2002 | David F. Coppedge

Computer Model Claims Lucy Walked Upright

A computer robot model of the gait of Australopithecus afarensis (aka, Lucy), reported in the BBC News, suggests that she walked upright.  This is partly on the skeletal structure of the foot and the distance between the Laetoli footprints preserved in fossil ash, where are claimed to date from the same time period Lucy lived.  The article ends with some doubt: “There are still some people who argue that, looking at the anatomy of the foot bones of afarensis, that they were unlikely to have made the Laetoli footprints,” [Chris Stringer] told the BBC News website.  “So it doesn’t end the argument because there is still the possibility that there were different creatures around at the time.”

The Laetoli prints are identical to modern human footprints.  The only reason paleoanthropologists claim they were made by A. afarensis is the dating: they are too “old” to have been made by modern man.  That’s why the artist’s rendition shows the tracks being made by a family of evolving creatures with an upright gait, human feet and ape-like faces.
    Data are just pawns in the evolutionary chess game.  The King is Charlie Dumpty.  All the king’s horses and all the king’s men must protect him from falling.

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Categories: Early Man

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