First hominin muscle reconstruction shows 3.2 million-year-old 'Lucy' could stand as erect as we can

3 years ago by prothy to c/humans

Digital modelling of legendary fossil's soft tissue suggests Australopithecus afarensis had powerful leg and pelvic muscles suited to tree dwelling, but knee muscles that allowed fully erect walking.

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couragethebravedog 2 points 3 years ago

I know little about this, but is scanning human muscle tissue then mapping it onto the skeleton of Lucy the best way to determine how her muscles worked ? How do we know she even had muscles similar to our own ? Sure her bones are similar but does that indicate she was like us in her muscles as well?

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prothy 1 point 3 years ago

The paper touches on this in its introduction. I can't explain how they did it, because the details are too technical for me.

However, the method they used comes from this paper here, where they reconstructed an extinct archosaur's legs by using an extant crocodile species. If I understood it correctly, they were able to verify the technique by then applying it to a gorilla's shoulder.

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couragethebravedog 2 points 3 years ago

Ahh, I should have read more thoroughly. I just skimmed it. Thanks for the info I'll read up on this.

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