3.4 Million Year Old Foot In Ethiopia Suggest Bipedal Species Had Opposable Big Toe [Video]
Humans are the only living mammal to walk to two feet. Photo above is the partial foot of a 3.4-million-year-old hominin from eastern Africa that was published in this week's Nature Journal Online. The fossil hints that more than one hominin species may have existed between three and four million years ago, each with its own way of moving around.
The foot found in Ethiopia suggests that two types of bipedal feet developed at the same time. The foot of "Lucy" (Australopithecus afarensis) is similar to modern human feet whereas this recently discovered foot suggests that the creature was bipedal but had an opposable big toe, similar to chimpanzees. This new species is believed to have a unique mode of locomotion where it spent time in the trees as well as the ground.
A few million years ago, our ancestors stopped climbing trees and started walking upright, on two feet. To work out how and when this happened, researchers look for fossils - and recently they found a surprising set of foot bones in Ethiopia. The foot is about 3.4 million years old, making it roughly the same age as 'Lucy' and her species, Australopithecus afarensis. But while Lucy's species had feet much like modern humans, the new foot has an opposable big toe, like a chimp. So do the foot bones represent a new species of hominin? Watch the video and decide.
[via www.nature.com via www.nytimes.com]
I would like to suggest he is in err in that humans, us, are not the only species to walk bipedaly.
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Oh boy...people, Bigfoot isnt real, Im sorry but it just isnt.
ReplyDeleteNice at the end when he states that because we DON'T HAVE ENOUGH EVIDENCE, that they are cautious to call it a new species.
ReplyDelete"A few million years ago, our ancestors stopped climbing trees and started walking upright, on two feet. To work out how and when this happened, researchers look for fossils..."
ReplyDeleteSo you come up with an idea you want to believe and then go looking for bones to shoe-horn into your preconceived world view? That's exactly how Darwinists work, yet it is promoted that the evidence was found and it was just incredibly obvious that everything made itself.
Lucy had no foot bones, but most scientists would tell you that she had the curled toes and fingers of a tree climbing ape. In fact, these bones could be her feet! There is no way of finding any bones in any place and knowing that they belong together!