‘Lucy walked upright!’ (or did she?) One tiny bone ignites
evolutionary fervour Published: 17 February 2011(GMT+10) Perhaps
not since the fabled “Nebraska Man” (and his family) were touted
as human ancestors, based on a tooth later found to be from a
pig, has there been this much fuss about a single bone.1 The
bone in question is a fourth metatarsal (shown in a human foot
in the X-ray here). It was allegedly found along with some other
remains of Australopithecus afarensis, the same type of creature
as the famous fossil ‘Lucy’. Found by Donald Johanson in 1974,
Lucy had no foot bones or skull, but most of the rest of her
skeleton was substantially present. She became a ‘poster child’
for human evolution, and was regarded as our definite ancestor.
Johanson himself (who may not be the most disinterested of
parties in all this) is in fact one of the co-authors of the
Science paper causing all the excitement.2 This diminutive bone
and its slight curvature is said to be enough to show that the
feet of Lucy’s kind