Why is Lucy the Australopithecus so important?
Lucy was one of the first hominin fossils to become a household name. Her skeleton is around 40% complete – at the time of her discovery, she was by far the most complete early hominin known.
What did Lucy the Australopithecus eat?
Lucy probably ate a mix of foods, including ripe fruits, nuts, and tubers from both the forest and savanna. Incisor teeth are typically used to prepare the food for mastication (think about biting off a piece of an apple), and molar teeth are used to masticate, or chew, the food into a small pulp that can be swallowed.
What does Lucy tell us about evolution?
In 1974, Lucy showed that human ancestors were up and walking around long before the earliest stone tools were made or brains got bigger, and subsequent fossil finds of much earlier bipedal hominids have confirmed that conclusion. Bipedalism, it seems, was the first step towards becoming human.
What features do the Australopithecus species share?
They were similar to modern humans in that they were bipedal (that is, they walked on two legs), but, like apes, they had small brains. Their canine teeth were smaller than those found in apes, and their cheek teeth were larger than those of modern humans.
What are the main features of Australopithecus?
What was the Australopithecus lifestyle?
They also had small canine teeth like all other early humans, and a body that stood on two legs and regularly walked upright. Their adaptations for living both in the trees and on the ground helped them survive for almost a million years as climate and environments changed.
Did Lucy speak a language?
Did Lucy speak and if so, what language did she speak? There is no evidence Lucy had a spoken language, however, she may have been able to communicate in different forms. Primates are known to communicate in a variety of ways, such as gestures, facial expressions, and vocalizations.
Is Australopithecus afarensis our ancestor?
Australopithecus afarensis is usually considered to be a direct ancestor of humans. It is also considered to be a direct ancestor of later species of Australopithecus and all species in the Paranthropus genus.