Lucy, discovered by Donald C. Johanson and Tom Gray, is Our Oldest and Most Complete Human Ancestor

The infamous event of the Piltdown hoax is one that continues to draw speculative attention over a century after the initial announcement of the paleoanthropological findings. Although many scientists, especially those involved in the field of paleoanthropology, would like to forget the incident entirely, the Piltdown man—taxonomically referred to as Eoanthropus dawsoni—is perhaps the greatest hoax in anthropological history. By 1912, British archaeologists and paleontologists were desperate for a significant paleoanthropological finding that would provide the missing link between humans and apes in hominin evolution (Prosser, 2009). The Piltdown man was originally a famous finding that straddled the human-animal boundary, dichotomously

This specific age of Mungo Man is now the age that is accepted by everyone which then concludes to being the second oldest modern human body remains that were not found in Africa. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, Mungo woman was found to be 43,000 years old. This, however, was announced after the same scientists discovered that Mungo woman was around the same age as Mungo man. Before they had discovered this, they believed she was 30,000 years old. Mungo Woman’s remains were then announced as the oldest human remains to ever be discovered.

At 4 pm, in a certain park, 2 skeletons were found lying side by side behind the bushes. It was concluded that the two were a couple because they were holding hands whilst the skull was facing each other. A femur, pelvic girdles, skulls, tibia, and humerus were taken from each of the skeleton and observations were made to identify their gender, race, age, and height. One is a female, and the other was a male, also the skeletons pretty much remained intact from being undisturbed however, a few of the hand or feet bones can be found lying a little further off perhaps due to the scattering of birds.

accommodate this strange position, we have developed a specialized pelvis, hip and leg muscles, and an S-shaped vertebral column. Because these changes can be documented in fossil bone, bipedalism is seen as the defining trait of the sub family Homininae.

Ardipithecus has been discovered, an Ancestor that dates back prior to the remains of Lucy. In the article written by Ann Gibbons and others, it dives into the discovery of our most ancient ancestor and the clues given to us from all 110 remains that have been found of A. ramidus. First let me begin with Lucy whose remains were found in 1974 and that dated back to 3.2 million years ago. These skeletal remains gave us the evidence needed to prove that our ancient ancestors were bipedal before evolving their big brains. After Lucy was discovered the scientist found themselves with even more questions, such as, were any previous ancestors before Lucy bipedal or did

Through this type of fossil discovery, scientists have learned much about our ancestors. They feel privileged to study them and become attached to the non-human primates they find; they even give them names. Research studies of living non-human primates have provided a glimpse into their habitats and offers clues to the nature of this species and how it leads to humans. At the same time humans over consumption and abuse by the very primates related to Ida, Lucy and Ardi are forcing non-human primates into extinction today. Because of human interaction we are destroying our ancestors.

2) Lucy is a collection of fossils from an early hominid species that is over 3 million years old. Lucy's fossils were discovered in Ethiopia, and Lucy was also very short compared to the average modern

The skeletal characteristics of these hominines suggest that their mode of locomotion was likely a cross between occasional bipedalism and obligate bipedalism. From the reading we have learned that obligate bipedalism is bipedal locomotion that is practiced all of the time while occasional bipedalism is bipedalism that is practiced on occasion. The ratio of arm length to leg length (longer arms) suggests that they did spend time climbing trees, however the cranial and post cranial traits of these fossils suggest that they spent much of their time on the ground and likely ambulating bipedally combined with a variation of upright walking and knuckle walking. This is evidenced by two factors: the fact the foramen magnum of the skull is centrally located, and the ratio of arm to leg length. In creatures with bipedal ambulation, the foramen magnum is located in the center of the base of the skull to keep the head aligned over the center of gravity of the creature. If the fossils were walking primarily with their knuckles, the

Despite her short stature and hirsute frame, Lucy the Australopithecus afarensis, whose discovery is today commemorated with a Google Doodle, was from a species that could be a forerunner to modern humans.

First we figured out whether the bones were male or female. It was discovered they were female from taking measurements from the skull, humerus, pelvis and tibia. The pelvis, which we measured first had ¾ of the traits pointing to being a female, including the sub-pubic angle, Greater Sciatic Notch and the cavity shape. Then the skull had results of ⅜ traits being a female. That is what threw us off. How could it be so different from our first result with the pelvis. After much discussion it was decided that since on the skull we used qualitative data that it wasn’t as strong of evidence. Lastly for the tibia and humerus, we got 6/6 traits being positive to female. All of this quantitative and qualitative information was put together to determine that the bones were from a female.

The Australopithecine are some of the earliest known hominids and they embody many characteristics that are associated with bipedalism. Bipedalism is a highly specialized and unusual form of primate locomotion that sets modern humans apart from all other living primates as we are the only extant obligate bipeds. Many evolutionary biologists and paleoanthropologists have devoted innumerable research hours to attempting to understand this unique form of locomotion and how it evolved. A number of interdependent morphological adaptations occurred over a long period of time to solve challenges posed by habitual bipedalism. As a result, there are differences that exist between early and late hominin species.

it's the oldest celebrated skeleton of an individual's relative. The individual is believed to be a feminine and is nicknamed ‘Ardi’. She weighed regarding 50kg and stood regarding 120cm tall.The skeleton was in very poor condition and it took the team fifteen years to excavate, scan, build virtual reconstructions, assemble and so analyse. The results we tend tore massively vital in terms of however we read the evolution of the earliest hominins and also the physical look of the last common relative of humans and chimpanzees. The skeleton doesn't look very similar to a great ape or pongid or have the expected 'transitional' options. Instead, it's going to well preserve a number of the characteristics of the last chimp-human

“Lucy” is very small for her species only 3’6” tall and weighing around 62 lbs. It was also observed that she was bipedal thanks to her pelvis, femur, and tibia. This was all discovered in 1974, Donald Johanson also discovered “the First Family” a year after. It was the remains of 13 individuals varied in ages, the males were larger than the females. There was also scientist that theorizes “the First Family” was more than one species. Both discoveries show that the fossils were around 3.2 million years old. I find it amazing how the fossils were so well preserved that they lasted so long.

The most famous member of the human family tree was a fossil named “Lucy”. Lucy was a fossil discovered in 1974, and named after the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. “Lucy lived some 3.2 million years ago. She belonged to the species Australopithecusafarensis” ( Bower) Lucy was a hominid, that means she came from the same family as our most recent ancient relatives and humans. The reason for being such a famous member of the family tree is because it is one of the few full skeletons of our most recent ancient relatives. Lucy plays a great role in our study of human evolution.

Dental microwear studies suggest that the diet of H. habilis was flexible and versatile and that they were capable of eating a broad range of foods, including some tougher foods like leaves, woody plants, roots, berries and some animal tissues (birds and insects), but that they did not routinely consume or specialize in eating hard foods like brittle nuts or seeds, dried meat, or very hard tubers.