New research suggests that the world’s most famous early human ancestor, nicknamed Lucy, could walk fully upright as well as living in trees.
It means her posture is not replicated in any living species today.
The individual, from the species Australopithecus Afarensis, was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, with 40% of her skeletal bones.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge have now digitally modelled her lower limb muscles.
They conclude that Lucy could straighten her knee joints, enabling her to stand upright and inhabit grasslands – but also that her powerful leg muscles helped her live in trees like modern apes.
Lucy lived more than three million years ago.
