Not everything is like ride a bicycle ; some attainment in life sentence are more of the use - it - or - lose - it assortment . research worker say Lucy may have died from a decline from a tree , possibly as a aftermath of suffer her ape ancestors ’ tree - climbing skills . They published their controversial findings in the journalNature .
The 3.2 - million - class - sometime clay of anAustralopithecus afarensiswoman nicknamed Lucy have captivated the existence since their discovery in Ethiopia in 1974 . Her remains revealed to us the first human ascendant to have walked upright . In 2006 , to fan the fire of Lucy ’s fame , the Ethiopian government schedule a tour for Lucy ( also lie with asAL 288 - 1 and Dinknesh ) with as many as 10 museum stops along the path . Many archaeologistsfearedthat traveling would cause irreparable harm to the one - of - a - kind skeleton . But the tour went on . During Lucy ’s diaphragm at the University of Texas , researcher pounced on the opportunity to put her bones in an x - re computed tomography ( CT ) scanner .
Lucy ’s distal radius undergoes computed tomographic scanning . Image credit : Marsha Miller , UT Austin
Using the scanner , the team produced 35,000 mellow - resolution “ slices ” of Lucy ’s remains , which then permit them to produce a genuine - to - living 3D rendering that would stick around even after Lucy left .
Paleoanthropologist and project drawing card John Kappelman was examining the interlingual rendition when he examine something unusual : a strange falling out in Lucy ’s right humerus ( upper arm bone ) . In compare the prehistoric hurt to figure of modern os breakage , he realized it looked an horrific lot like a four - part proximal humeral fracture , in which a gust to the shoulder vane smashes down the read/write head of the humerus , pack together it into the gibe of the osseous tissue . Today , this kind of injury is common in gondola fortuity when citizenry have used their mitt to twosome against the fascia , but it ’s also typical in falls from neat heights .
Kappelman and his colleague thenused a three-D printerto create a hard copy of the os . They brought the new made remains to nine orthopedical specializer , who all agreed with Kappelman ’s initial judgement of a four - part proximal fracture . They suggest her injuries are consistent with someone who had fallen from a tallness of approximately 45 feet — about as high in the trees as chimpanzees typically work up their sleeping nests — at a speed of about 37 miles per hour .
“ It may well have been the type that version that tolerate her to live more efficiently on the ground compromise her ability to move safely in the trees — and may have predispose her kind to more drop , ” KappelmantoldScience .
Not everyone is convinced . Other archaeologists argue that other portion of Lucy ’s body were far more fractured than they would have been after a fall . Of her shattered ribs , Kent State University biological anthropologist Owen Lovejoy said inScience , “ you could n’t do that with a shotgun blast . ”
Then there ’s the fact that Lucy ’s bones could well have been damaged after she died . Paleoanthropologist Don Johanson of Arizona State University , who discovered Lucy in 1974 , is unbelieving . “ Terrestrial animals like antelopes and gazelle , elephants and rhinos and camelopard — all these bones show very standardized shift and breakage patterns as Lucy , ” he pointed out toScience . “ you’re able to be sure they did n’t precipitate out of trees . ”
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