Summary: Lucy Died 3 Million Years Ago

Now We Know How ‘Lucy’ Died 3 Million Years Ago. Maybe

University of Texas has been working to figure out what sort of life “Lucy” has lived, but in their data they believe they have found the way that this early human died in late August. Lucy is the name of one of the earliest human skeletons to be found; she was discovered on the continent of Africa in Ethiopia. She falls under the class of hominine and dates backs 3.2 million years ago. She was discovered in 1974 and is one of the most complete hominine skeletons to ever be discovered. Her skeleton shows she stood at a mighty 3 feet 6 inches and estimated to weigh around 60 pounds. She is able to be used give us secrets into our past. Lucy was originally transported to the University of Texas because of their advancements in technology; they had the first CT scanner to have industrial uses in the world. Dr. Richard Ketchman and Dr. John Kappelman at UT used the CT Scanner to create over 35,000 “slices” of the skeleton. While analyzing these skeleton “slices” to figure out more about the life that Lucy lived, they noticed a series of breaks in her right shoulder/arm. These fractures are similar to those seen by patients
who fall from a significant height and try to brace themselves by catching their falling body with their arms. “Our hypothesis suggests that the fractures in Lucy’s shoulder were produced when she stretched out her arms in a last desperate attempt to break her fall,” states Kappelman. The scientists now believe that Lucy fell from a significant height at close to 35 miles per hour and the impact on the ground was too severe for her small body to handle. This hypothesis by the scientists at University of Texas has brought up the long held debate of whether Lucy live strictly on the ground or she was able to climb up in trees. Ketchman and Kappelman believe that she spent a majority of her life on the ground, but may have climbed up into trees to seek shelter at night, like a chimp. Scientists around the world are not discrediting the findings of the scientists in Texas, but believe there can be other explanations for the breaks. Dr. Rebecca Ackerman of the University of Cape Town believes, “In my opinion this is a nice study that tells us something interesting about an individual who has played an important role in our understanding of human evolution” but does not disprove any other explanations for the breaks. Dr. Donald C. Johanson, a scientists who originally discovered Lucy in Ethiopia states, “The suggestion that she fell out of a tree is largely a “just-so story” that is neither verifiable nor falsifiable, and therefore unprovable.”
Both critics of the study have a good claim; there is not much scientific evidence to prove that the breaks came from falling out of a tree and, therefore, caused the death of Lucy.
Ketchman and Kappelman believe that the study of Lucy’s death has brought them closer to her. “It was in the moment of understanding her death, of literally being able to experience what she went through, that I felt empathy for her. My understanding of her death brought her to life for me.” They did not try to add any excitement or dramatization to their hypothesis, but simply stated what they had discovered. They also intended this information to the world, not specific audience, because they are the only scientists in the world to have the CT Scanner to look closely at the fossilized
skeleton.
I believe that the scientists at the University of Texas analyzed the data gained from the CT Scans without bias and did not put their opinions into hypothesizing that the breaks may have caused the death of Lucy. Ketchman and Kappelman used the data they were given to make a hypothesis. There was some slant in the hypothesis that the breaks came from a fall of significant height. It is strongly debated if Lucy lived strictly on the ground or if she spent some of her time climbing up in the trees. The scientists are on the side of the debate that believe that Lucy lived part of the time up in the trees and their hypothesis shown that blatantly. Their claim was based off the fact that the clean breaks looked similar to those who had fallen and tried to catch their body weight with their shoulders/arms. Even though there is some evidence to back up Ketchman and Kappelman’s ideas (x-rays of patients who have broken their shoulders from falling), there are also many other possibilities to the causes of the breaks.
The wording of the stated hypothesis was done in a way to try to make the idea more widely accepted. The scientists used the height and weight of Lucy to calculate the speed in which she would have had to fall in order to have death caused on impact. This number calculated was around 35 miles per hour and was strictly an estimate. There is no actual data to prove that she fell at the speed that was calculated. gave the most specific data that they could in order to make their hypothesis more accepted. They also added emotion into their argument stating, “It was in the moment of understanding her death, of literally being able to experience what she went through, that I felt empathy for her. My understanding of her death brought her to life for me.”
To make the report more complete, Ketchman and Kappelman would have to travel to the sight of where Lucy’s skeleton was found. They would have to survey the land around to see if there are any trees, or evidence that trees once existed in this area, to see if falling from a significant height was an actual possibility. I question whether or not the landscape in the area of Ethiopia had the resources that allowed Lucy to actually fall from a cliff or a tree. There has most likely been an environmental change to the area in which she was found, but soil samples or other fossils will give evidence as to what the landscape looked like at the time of her death.
Although there are gaps in the data that Ketchman and Kappelman provide, there is no way to know exactly how Lucy died because we were not alive 3.2 million years ago to make a record of the event. Ketchman and Kappelman used the information they were given to make the best hypothesis about the incident.