Fossil find puts 'Lucy' story on firm footing (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News

New fossil evidence seems to confirm that a key ancestor of ours could walk upright consistently - one of the major advances in human evolution.

The evidence comes in the form of a 3.2 million-year-old bone that was found at Hadar, Ethiopia.

Its shape indicates the diminutive, human-like species Australopithecus afarensis had arches in its feet.

Arched feet, the discovery team tells the journal Science, are critical for walking the way modern humans do.

"{The bone} gives a glimpse of foot anatomy and function," explained William Kimbel, director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, US.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12412662