Scientists Confirm Iconic Ancient Human Lucy Walked Upright

There’s some news about everyone’s favorite great-great-great-great-great-(etc.) aunt, Lucy. Also known as AL 288-1 and Dinkinesh, our shared ancestor (or rather, 40 percent of her skeleton) was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia. This female hominid species Australopithecus afarensis died sometime in her early twenties but is about 3.18 million years old. Yes, that Lucy.
We already know, through plentiful evidence, that she, as well as her contemporaries, were walking upright on two feet even before the introduction of stone tools or enlarged human brains. In a sense, bipedalism was one of humanity’s first steps (literally) toward becoming ourselves.
But exactly how she walked upright is still largely unknown. Lucy’s remains, which are all skeletal, only tell us so much, such as her approximate height (three and a half feet) and weight (60 to 65 pounds). But did Lucy walk fully erect like we do or on bent knees like a chimp or bonobo?
Now we have more solid evidence than ever that Lucy walked on outstretched legs straightened beneath her — and probably ran, too. This research, published on June 13 in the journal Royal Society Open Science, drew from a novel, painstaking computer simulation to render a digital reconstruction of Lucy’s legs and musculature.
Scientists Confirm Iconic Ancient Human Lucy Walked Upright — And She Was Jacked