More for Sarah...Though posted in another thread I believe its relevance merits re-posting it here in OUR Lucy discussion. Please note this is not ME...
Stern and Susman in The American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Vol. 60, Issue 3, March 1983 when having examined Australopithicus fossils remarked: “It is demonstrated that A. afarensis (Lucy) possessed anatomic characteristics that indicate a significant adaptation for movement in the trees” (pg. 280). They went on to comment that “The AL 333-91 [designation for a specific A. afarensis fossil—BH/BT] pisiform [bone of the hand—BH/BT] is ‘elongate and rod shaped’ and thus resembles the long, projecting pisiform of apes and monkeys”.
They said “the hands and feet of A. afarensis are devoid of the normal human qualities” assigned to hands and feet. These creatures had long, curved fingers and toes typical of arboreal primates. Now please note that in reading through the following descriptions, bear in mind that the zoo in St. Louis, Missouri, proudly displays a life-size reconstruction of Lucy with perfectly formed human hands and feet. (What an evil deception…lying in the name of truth….sounds Geobbels to me]
A bit further on they tell us “The overall morphology of metacarpals II-V [bones that comprise the hand—BH/BT] is similar to that of chimpanzees and, therefore, might be interpreted as evidence of developed grasping capabilities to be used in suspensory behavior (pg. 283)”.
Moving on they say, “The markedly curved proximal phalanges [bones of the fingers—BH/BT] indicate adaptation for suspensory and climbing activities which require powerful grasping abilities.... The trapezium [bone at the base of the first digit—BH/BT] and first metacarpal are very chimpanzee-like in relative size and shape.... Enlarged metacarpal heads and the mildly curved, parallel-sided shafts are two such features of the Hadar metacarpals not seen in human fingers. The distal phalanges, too, retain ape-like features in A. afarensis.... (pg. 284).”
In their concluding remarks, Stern and Susman tell us, “We discovered a substantial body of evidence indicating that arboreal activities were so important to A. afarensis that morphologic adaptations permitting adept movement in the trees were maintained.. When I started to put the skeleton together, I expected it to look human. Everyone had talked about Lucy as being very modern, very human, so I was surprised by what I saw. I noticed that the ribs were more round in cross-section, more like what you see in apes. Human ribs are flatter in cross-section. But the shape of the rib cage itself was the biggest surprise of all. The human rib cage is barrel shaped, and I just couldn’t get Lucy’s ribs to fit this kind of shape. But I could get them to make a conical-shaped rib cage, like what you see in apes. (pg. 313 on)”