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Article: Hominids: down-to-earth or up tree? (Australopithecus afarensis)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- April 9, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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For more than 15 years, the way in which Lucy and other members of Australopithecus afarensis, the earliest known species in the human evolutionary family, moved about has sparked considerable debate.
One side argues that these hominids, which lived from about 4 million to 3 million years ago, preferred walking and spent only a small amount of time in the trees. New African fossil finds support this view (SN: 11/20/93, p.324).
However, evidence presented at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists' annual meeting in Denver last week depicted Lucy's species and many subsequent hominids as creatures that balanced walking with substantial tree ...