On the other hand, its fascination stems from the fact that its object of study is ourselves, so that the results of its research allow us to increase, and deepen, our knowledge of our biological origins and our own evolution.Īt final, human palaeontology aims to unravel the mystery of our origin and development to become who we are. On the one hand, it arouses the passion that is inherent in any science, insofar as it allows us to expand our knowledge of reality. Palaeoanthropology, or the science of human evolution, is doubly exciting. These words of Roger Lewin were written more than a decade ago, but they are still valid today. This diversity of professional opinion is instructive, for it confirms that "the phylogeny of hominids is far from settled"". Years later, another great scholar, Roger Lewin, warned us that: "a review of recently published physical anthropology books and articles reveals a rather diverse collection of proposed hominin phylogenies. "This is what I think!" exclaimed Leakey to the dumbfounded gaze of a bewildered Johanson. I didn't come so well prepared! I didn't come so well prepared! But my opinion is this." He then took a thick-tipped marker pen and drew a big X on Johanson's panel crossing out its contents and then wrote a big question mark. Richard Leakey looked at it and turned to the camera and exclaimed, "Gee. On one occasion, during a television discussion between Donald Johanson and Richard Leakey (two of the most famous specialists in human evolution), the former took out one of the several panels he had in one of those big folders used by cartoonists and said to Leakey something like: "I'd like to know what you think about this", and showed him his phylogenetic proposal for the human family tree. His team zeroed in on a four-part fracture in her right humerus, the bone that runs between the shoulder and the elbow.There is an amusing amecdote that illustrates very graphically the topic we want to deal with in this article. Kappelman has spent 30 years teaching students about Lucy, and reached his most recent conclusions by X-ray scanning the bone fragments. But despite her ape-like appearance, Lucy’s ankles, feet and pelvis placed her among the first species to exhibit the uniquely human trait of walking upright. She was small, probably smaller than her peers, weighing about 60 pounds and standing just 3 feet 6 inches tall. She had long arms like an ape, a protruding belly, a low forehead and the ability to navigate trees. On the evolutionary timeline, Lucy lived about halfway between apes and humans, sharing characteristics with both. Her bones make up about 40 percent of a complete skeleton, providing scientists unique insights into how humans started to walk on two feet. When she was found in 1974, her remains were remarkably intact. Lucy, a member of the ancient hominin species Australopithecus afarensis, is arguably the most celebrated find in the history of evolutionary science. The first segment depicts about the last half of the fall from 7.4 m with a real time duration of 0.45 seconds, and the second segment shows a close-up of the last 2.2 m of the fall. Subsequent vertical deceleration event based on the patterning of the fractures. Stop motion video depicts a hypothetical scenario for Lucy’s fall out of a tall tree and the
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