Feb. 10, 2011 Feet arches give humans a spring in their steps,
shock absorbing abilities, and stiff platforms to propel
themselves forward, allowing them to walk upright consistently.
Now, researchers at the University of Missouri and Arizona State
University have found proof that arches existed in a predecessor
to the human species that lived more than 3 million years ago.
This discovery could change scientists' views of human
evolution. The study was recently published in Science. Carol
Ward, an MU researcher in the Department of Pathology and
Anatomical Sciences at the MU School of Medicine, and William
Kimbel and Donald Johanson, director and founding director of
the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University,
studied a 3.2 million-year-old fourth metatarsal of
Australopithecus afarensis. A team from the Institute of Human
Origins and National Museum of Ethiopia led by Kimbel discovered
the fossil in Hadar, Ethiopia. The species is often referred to
as "Lucy," the nickname of the most complete