Lucy, our 3.2 million year old ancestor Australopithecus afarensisShe may not have won gold at the Olympics, but new evidence suggests she did He was Able to run upright. According to numerical simulations developed by researchers in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, Lucy was able to reach maximum speeds of 4.97 meters per second (16.3 feet per second).
This means that it will be quickly outpaced by the average 21st century runner, who can achieve a speed of 7.9 meters per second (25.9 feet per second), and completely outpaced by Usain Bolt, who ran at 7.9 meters per second. 10.44 meters per second (34.2 feet per second) in the 2009 speed record.
To create these simulations, Lucy’s skeleton was combined with muscular features found in contemporary apes, and added to existing software developed to demonstrate movement in animals. Although they lacked the long Achilles tendon and short muscle fibers in the leg that support the running performance of humans today, they seemed capable of running on two legs. However, it is unlikely that she spent much time running for fun. To analyze energy expenditure, the researchers also added human ankle muscles to the simulated Lucy. They found that running would be much more difficult for her than it is for us.
The simulations lend weight to the theory that humans specifically evolved certain traits in order to enhance their running performance — and that it was not simply a “byproduct of selection for enhanced walking abilities,” the study authors say. According to some theoriesHumans developed the skill of running long distances to enable us to hunt animals. This is the hypothesis that was supported Modern studies.
Lucy and her relatives were a group of hominins who inhabited East Africa about 2.9 to 3.9 million years ago. The size is half a liter A. afarensis He bears a mixture of ape-like and humanoid features, hence the nickname “Missing Link”.
This is the latest discovery related to Lucy, whose fossilized bones were discovered in Ethiopia 50 years ago. Thanks to the excellent preservation of its skeleton, it has been an invaluable source of knowledge for anthropologists.
The study is published in the journal Current biology.
