Lucy’s child’ climbed trees, according to articles in ScienceDaily and National Geographic 4 July 2018 and Cosmos 6 July 2018 and Science Advances 4 July 2018, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aar7723.
A team of scientists in the USA have studied a foot fossil found with a partial skeleton in Ethiopia in 2002. The skeleton has been identified as a juvenile of Australopithecus afarensis, the same classification as Lucy, and is dated as 3.3 million years old. The fossil foot is only partially preserved and consists of the heel bone and other bones from the middle part of the foot as well as the upper ends of the metatarsal bones where they are attached to mid foot. The rest of the foot and the toes are missing.
The scientists found two “unexpected” features: the heel was small; and the joint forming the base of the big toe was curved. These finds were unexpected because the evolutionist fraternity believe that Lucy and her kin walked upright on two feet like humans, but these newly found features fit a creature that climbed trees. The fossil foot with its more curved base for its big toe, indicates the big toe could be moved away from the rest of the foot, enabling it to be used for grasping tree branches, but not good for ground walking. The human foot has a large heel bone for weight bearing as the weight of the body goes down the leg onto the heel during standing and walking. Also, the big toe and the metatarsal bone that links the toe to the midfoot are tightly bound in line with the other toes to form a strong arch for ground walking.
Cosmos, National Geographic, ScienceDaily
Editorial Comment: These features may be unexpected for evolutionary biologists, but they are no surprise to us. In fact, they should be no surprise to anyone. There is plenty of evidence, that Australopithecus afarensis was a tree climbing ape, including the skeleton of this ‘Lucy’s child’. The research team who originally reported on the Lucy Child skeleton commented on the gorilla-like shoulder blade, robust arms and long curved finger bones. (Nature vol. 443, pp 296–301, 21 September 2006). This new study confirms ‘Lucy’s child’ climbed trees like any modern ape does!
The original Lucy skeleton does not have feet, so any claims of Lucy walking with human-like feet are based on evidence not connected with the original fossil. These include the Laetoli footprints and one metatarsal bone.
The Laetoli footprints are a series of footprints preserved in volcanic ash many hundreds of miles from the Lucy site. They are so human-like one of the scientists who has studied them claims they could be from any modern day beach. They are only claimed to be Australopithecine footprints because the rock layer is dated as over three million years – too old for human evolution true believers.
The metatarsal bone was an isolated bone found in the same site as Australopithecine bones, but it is clearly from a human foot. Again, it is only assigned to Lucy’s kin because of the three million year date given to this site as well.
For more details of these see our reports More Laetoli Footprints and Lucy Gets Bone Graft. Studies of actual A. afarensis bones also provide plenty of evidence that these creatures were tree climbers. See Lucy a Real Swinger, and Lucy Climbed Trees and Fell Out.
Evidence News vol. 18, No.8
11 July 2018
Creation Research Australia
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