Humans evolved for distance running — but ancestor ‘Lucy’ didn’t go far or fast 3D models of Australopithecus afarensis suggest the muscular adaptations that made modern humans better runners.

Lucy, our 3.2 million-year-old ancestor of the species Australopithecus afarensis, may not have won gold in the Olympics – but new evidence suggests she was able to run upright.

Walk like Australopithecus afarensis 3D muscle reconstruction shows 3.2 million-year-old “Lucy” walked upright "Lucy’s muscles suggest that she was as proficient at bipedalism as we are." ...

A sculptor's rendering of the hominid Australopithecus afarensis in an exhibition that included the 3.2 million-year-old fossilized remains of "Lucy." (Image credit: Dave Einsel via Getty Images) ...

Australopithecus afarensis looked like a mix between modern humans and other great apes. Imagine an individual who stands around 150 centimeters (just under 5 feet) tall, with a chimp-like face ...

Computer models of her muscles and bones show that Lucy was not a natural runner. It seems that Australopithecus afarensis -- the early hominin species to which Lucy belonged -- was not well ...

Australopithecus afarensis is one of the best-known early human ancestors dating from 2.9 to 3.9 million years ago.

Researchers made a virtual reconstruction of the leg and pelvic muscles — which are not preserved in fossils — of the female Australopithecus afarensis, or Lucy, who probably was “not a ...

A sculptor's rendering of the hominid Australopithecus afarensis is displayed as part of an exhibition that includes the 3.2 million year old fossilized remains of "Lucy", the most complete ...

Three-dimensional volumetric muscle reconstruction of the Australopithecus afarensis pelvis and limb, with estimations of limb leverage. Royal Society Open Science, 2023; 10 (6) DOI: 10.1098/rsos ...

Dr Ashleigh Wiseman has 3D-modelled the leg and pelvis muscles of the hominin Australopithecus afarensis using scans of ‘Lucy’: the famous fossil specimen discovered in Ethiopia in the mid-1970s.

Fossils of early human ancestors from a South African cave are 3.4 million to 3.6 million years old – making them a million years older than previously suspected and shaking up the way ...