Ancient human relatives ran on two legs, like modern humans, but at a much slower pace, [suggesting] 3D computer simulations of Australopithecus afarensis – a small hominin that lived more than three million years ago.
The analysis offers a detailed snapshot of the hominin’s running speed and the muscular adaptations that enabled modern humans to run long distances, says Herman Pontzer, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. “It’s a very thorough approach,” he says. The findings were published [in] Current Biology.
A. afarensis walked upright on two legs, making its fossils a favourite for researchers looking to unpick how bipedalism evolved in the human lineage. But few studies have explored the hominin’s running ability because it requires more than studying fossilized footprints and bones, says study co-author Karl Bates, an evolutionary biomechanics researcher at the University of Liverpool, UK.
