A sculptor’s rendering of the hominid Australopithecus afarensis in an exhibition that included the 3.2 million-year-old fossilized remains of “Lucy.” (Image credit: Dave Einsel via Getty Images)
Our 3.2 million-year-old ancestor “Lucy” could stand and walk upright just like modern humans do, new 3D muscle modeling reveals.
The finding bolsters a growing consensus among researchers that Australopithecus afarensis — the extinct species to which Lucy belongs — walked erect rather than with a chimpanzee-like, crouching waddle.
The hominin’s reconstructed pelvis and leg muscles also suggest that she could climb trees, meaning the species likely thrived in both forest and grassland habitats in East Africa 3 million to 4 million years ago.
“Lucy’s muscles suggest that she was as proficient at bipedalism as we are, while possibly also being at home in the trees,” Ashleigh Wiseman, a research associate at the University of Cambridge’s McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in the U.K. who conducted the modeling study, said in a statement. “She would have been able to exploit both habitats effectively.”
Lucy’s fossils are the best-preserved Australopithecus remains ever unearthed, with 40% of her skeleton recovered from Ethiopia’s Hadar region in the mid-1970s. Her bones indicate that she stood 3.4 feet (1 meter) tall and weighed between 29 and 93 pounds (13 to 42 kilograms). Her discovery pointed to the possibility that human ancestors could walk upright long before they evolved bigger brains.
Related: Human ancestor ‘Lucy’ gets a new face in stunning reconstruction
While soft tissue is not visible in the fossil record, scientists can piece together what the extinct species’ muscles may have looked like by using modern humans (Homo sapiens) as analogs. Our bone structure and muscle attachments can inform how muscles were layered on Lucy’s skeleton.
In a study published Wednesday (June 14) in the journal Royal Society Open Science, Wiseman used a digital modeling approach to recreate 36 muscles in each of Lucy’s legs.
Wiseman used scans from modern humans as a reference to layer muscles onto a virtual model of Lucy’s skeleton. (Image credit: Dr Ashleigh Wiseman)
The reconstruction shows that Lucy could straighten her knee joints and extend her hips in a similar way to modern humans, suggesting that the species could stand and walk upright.
The model also reveals the proportions of fat and muscle in Lucy’s legs, showing they were far more muscular than a modern human’s and similar in composition to a bonobo’s (Pan paniscus). While a human thigh is about 50% muscle, Lucy’s were likely 74% and less fatty. Some of her calf and thigh muscles occupied twice as much space in her legs as they do in human legs today.
Lucy’s knees demonstrated a wider range of motion in the extension-flexion axis than a human’s. This, combined with her muscle mass, suggests that A. afarensis could utilize a wide range of habitats, from dense forests to grassy savannas. This type of locomotion is not seen in any modern animal, Wiseman said. “Lucy likely walked and moved in a way that we do not see in any living species today.”
While the finding is based on an incomplete skeleton, and it remains unknown how often A. afarensis adopted an upright posture, the results of the analysis support the current consensus of Lucy’s physical abilities.
The model revealed that Lucy’s legs were far more muscular than a modern human’s and more similar in composition to a bonobo’s. (Image credit: Dr Ashleigh Wiseman) RELATED STORIES—New fossil reveals face of oldest known ‘Lucy’ relative
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“The current paper is not a game changer in our thinking,” said Fred Spoor, a professor and researcher at the Natural History Museum in the U.K., who was not involved in the research.
However, reconstructing the muscles is a novel and exciting method to confirm bipedalism, Spoor told Live Science in an email. “This approach is certainly promising,” he said. “It goes beyond the sometimes somewhat simplistic interpretations of paleontologists when it comes to inferring what movements and locomotor pattern characterized an extinct species.”
Muscle modeling has already helped researchers gauge the walking speed of a Tyrannosaurus rex and could shed light on similar traits in archaic humans. “By applying similar techniques to ancestral humans, we want to reveal the spectrum of physical movement that propelled our evolution,” Wiseman said.
Model Penny Lancaster has said she “felt ashamed and belittled” by how former MasterChef host Gregg Wallace treated her on the TV show.
Lancaster, who is also a TV personality and the wife of rock singer Rod Stewart, told Sky News’ The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee programme that she also felt let down by MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK.
“I didn’t feel like I was supported in that moment, I felt ashamed and belittled by the way Greg Wallace had treated me but equally I felt disappointed that the production company hadn’t come to my rescue,” Lancaster, 54 and a MasterChef contestant in 2021, said.
“There is a long way to go, but just by people coming forward and being honest about their experiences I think will help in the long term.”
At the end of July, Wallace, 60, apologised after a report commissioned by Banijay UK, and carried out by law firm Lewis Silkin, found 45 out of 83 allegations against him were substantiated.
Sir Rod Stewart criticised Wallace on Instagram in November 2024 and claimed he “humiliated” his wife when she was on the show.
He wrote: “Good riddance Wallace… You humiliated my wife when she was on the show, but you had that bit cut out didn’t you?
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“You’re a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully.”
He has previously apologised to people he has hurt, saying in July that he knows he has said things that have offended people. He has denied a specific allegation of unwanted touching.
The BBC referred Sky News to their statement from July, in which the corporation said: “Although the full extent of these issues were not known at the relevant time, opportunities were missed to address this behaviour – both by the production companies running MasterChef and the BBC. We accept more could and should have been done sooner.
“We want to thank all those who took part in the investigation, including those who first raised concerns directly with the BBC in November last year. We apologise to everyone who has been impacted by Mr Wallace’s behaviour.”
Image: Penny Lancaster speaks to Sarah-Jane Mee
Banijay UK, the producers of MasterChef, told Sky News: “We are extremely sorry to anyone who has been impacted by any inappropriate behaviour by Gregg Wallace whilst working on our shows and felt unable to speak up at the time or that their complaint was not adequately addressed.
“Ways of reporting concerns whilst working on our productions, protocols around behaviour and training for both cast and crew, have improved exponentially in recent years and we constantly review welfare procedures across our productions to ensure that they are as robust as they can be.”
Five people have been killed, including the gunman, and at least eight others injured after a mass shooting and fire at a Mormon church in Michigan, police have said.
The incident took place at around 10.25am local time on Sunday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, about 50 miles north of Detroit.
The suspect – identified as Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, from the nearby city of Burton – was shot dead by police officers.
He served in the Marines from June 2004 to June 2008 and was deployed in Iraq, Sky News’ US partner network NBC News reported.
Image: Flames and smoke rising from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc. Pic: Julie J, @Malkowski6April/AP
Sanford drove a vehicle through the front doors of the church before opening fire with an assault rifle, police said.
He then exited the vehicle and began firing rounds at people who were attending Sunday service, before deliberately starting the blaze, police added.
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The blaze has been extinguished but authorities believe they will find additional victims in the charred building.
At around 8pm on Sunday (1am in the UK), Grand Blanc Township Chief William Renye confirmed that a further two victims were found in the burned remains of the church, in addition to two other victims who had suffered gunshot wounds.
As many as three improvised devices were found at the scene, according to two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation, NBC reported.
Image: Police believe the number of victims may rise. Pic: AP
According to Chief Renye, when gunfire broke out, people inside the church bravely put themselves at risk to protect the children.
“They were shielding the children who were also present within the church, moving them to safety,” he said. “Just extreme courage.”
Chief Renye said law enforcement officers arrived at the church within 30 seconds of receiving a 911 call. The suspect was “neutralised” in the back parking lot within eight minutes by a Department of Natural Resources officer and a Grand Blanc Township officer, he said.
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement that “my heart is breaking for the Grand Blanc community” after the shooting.
She added: “Violence anywhere, especially in a place of worship, is unacceptable. I am grateful to the first responders who took action quickly.”
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Genesee County sheriff Christopher Swanson said at around 12.20pm that the “entire church” was on fire, and confirmed that people who were at the church had been evacuated.
Around 20 minutes later, the police department said the fire had been contained.
Image: The incident took place at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc.
US attorney general Pam Bondi confirmed the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were responding to the incident.
US President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that “the suspect is dead, but there is still a lot to learn”, before saying the shooting “appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America”.
He added: “PRAY for the victims, and their families. THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!”
In the wake of the shooting and fire, the New York Police Department said it would deploy officers to religious institutions across the city “out of an abundance of caution”.
The incident occurred the morning after Russell M Nelson, the oldest-ever president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died aged 101.
Shootings reported in North Carolina, New Orleans, Texas
Meanwhile, authorities responded to a mass shooting at a coastal town in North Carolina late on Saturday, where three people were killed.
Five others were injured in that incident, where someone opened fire from a boat into a crowd at a bar.
According to Sky News’ US partner network NBC, Nigel Max Edge, 40, was detained by the Coast Guard and charged with three counts of first-degree murder, five counts of attempted murder and five counts of assault with a deadly weapon on Sunday morning.
He remains in custody without bond, jail records show.
Another shooting took place at a south Texas casino early on Sunday, with seven people shot and two killed.
A woman was also killed, and three others were injured in Bourbon Street, New Orleans, early on Sunday after a shooting.
It was one sentence among the many words Donald Trump spoke this week that caught my attention.
Midway through a jaw-dropping news conference where he sensationally claimed to have “found an answer on autism”, he said: “Bobby (Kennedy) wants to be very careful with what he says, but I’m not so careful with what I say.”
The US president has gone from pushing the envelope to completely unfiltered.
Last Sunday, moments after Charlie Kirk‘s widow Erika had publicly forgiven her husband’s killer, Mr Trump told the congregation at his memorial service that he “hates his opponents”.
Image: President Donald Trump embraces Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika. Pic: AP
The president treats professional disapproval not as a liability but as evidence of authenticity, fuelling the aura that he is a challenger of conventions.
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“I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell,” he told his audience, deriding Europe’s approach to immigration as a “failed experiment of open borders”.
Image: Mr Trump addresses the UN General Assembly in New York. Pic: Reuters
Then came a U-turn on Ukraine, suggesting the country could win back all the land it has lost to Russia.
Most politicians would be punished for inconsistency, but Mr Trump recasts this as strategic genius – framing himself as dictating the terms.
It is hard to keep track when his expressed hopes for peace in Ukraine and Gaza are peppered with social media posts condemning the return of Jimmy Kimmel to late-night television.
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2:29
Trump’s major shift in Ukraine policy
Perhaps most striking of all is his reaction to the indictment of James Comey, the FBI director he fired during his first term.
In theory, this should raise questions about the president’s past conflicts with law enforcement, but he frames it as vindication, proof that his enemies fall while he survives.
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0:49
Ex-FBI chief: ‘Costs to standing up to Trump’
Mr Trump has spent much of his political career cultivating an image of a man above the normal consequences of politics, law or diplomacy, but he appears to feel more invincible than ever.