USA TODAY International Edition
3.2M years ago, Lucy died. Now we know how
Human cousin fell out of tree, study surmises
Talk about cracking a cold case: Nearly 3.2 million years ago, Lucy died. Now we may know how.
Lucy, the iconic human cousin whose skeleton was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, died shortly after she fell out of a tree, according to a new study published Monday in the peer- reviewed British journal Nature.
More than four decades after her discovery, Lucy remains one of the oldest, best and most complete skeletons of any adult, erect- walking hominid, according to John Kappelman, an anthropologist at the University of Texas and the lead author of the study. A hominid is a member of the evolutionary family that includes great apes — such as gorillas, chimps and orangutans — humans and their ancestors, some of which are extinct.
Lucy, an example of the oldest known hominid, australopithecus
afarensis, died at roughly 15 years old in what became Ethiopia. A small creature, about 3 feet 6 inches tall and 60 pounds, she probably spent nights in a tree to avoid bigger, potentially dangerous predators, Kappelman said.
Scientists dubbed her Lucy from the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, which was played at the camp the night of her discovery, according to Arizona State University ( ASU) Institute of Human Origins.
Using a high- resolution, high energy CT scan of her fossils, scientists discovered her upper arm and shoulders were broken. They determined she probably fell from a height of more than 40 feet, hitting the ground at more than 35 mph.
“We were surprised by this,” Kappelman said, adding that “rarely is the cause of death preserved in bones.”
Based on the pattern of breaks, she landed feet first before bracing herself with her arms as she fell forward, and “death followed swiftly,” the study concluded.
Other experts aren’t so sure of the findings. “I think the methodology falls short of providing a realistic explanation for the majority of breaks in Lucy’s bones,” said William Kimbel of ASU’s Institute of Human Origins. “We see this kind of damage frequently in a wide variety of animals that did not fall from trees.”