Limb Bone Structural Proportions and Locomotor Behavior in A.L. 288-1 ("Lucy").

ABSTRACT: While there is broad agreement that early hominins practiced some form of terrestrial bipedality, there is also evidence that arboreal behavior remained a part of the locomotor repertoire in some taxa, and that bipedal locomotion may not have been identical to that of modern humans. It has been difficult to evaluate such evidence, however, because of the possibility that early hominins retained primitive traits (such as relatively long upper limbs) of little contemporaneous adaptive significance. Here we examine bone structural properties of the femur and humerus in the Australopithecus afarensis A.L. 288-1 ("Lucy", 3.2 Myr) that are known to be developmentally plastic, and compare them with other early hominins, modern humans, and modern chimpanzees. Cross-sectional images were obtained f

SUBMITTER: Ruff CB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5130205 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature