An analysis of bones from the same species as 'Lucy' — a hominin who lived 3.2 million years ago — suggests that this species was more human-like than previously thought

Credit: C. WARD

Carol Ward at the University of Missouri in Columbia and her team analysed dozens of Australopithecus afarensis bones (example pictured), unearthed between 1990 and 2007 in Hadar, Ethiopia. The bones have been dated to between 3 million and 3.4 million years ago, and are thought to be from individuals intermediate in size between the smallest and the largest A. afarensis specimens yet found..

Foot bones indicate that A. afarensis had an arched foot, whereas vertebrae suggest a more human-like upper backbone than previously suspected. Both are consistent with upright walking.

J. Hum. Evol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.11.012 (2012)