Ancient human ancestor ‘Little Foot’ probably lived in trees, new research finds

(CNN)Around 3.67 million years ago, an ancient human ancestor nicknamed Little Foot fell about 30 feet down into a deep shaft of a cave. Today, she represents the most complete Australopithecus (pronounced aa-struh-luh-pi-thuh-kuhs) skeleton and is helping researchers to learn more about our chimpanzee-like ancestors. Little Foot likely stood over just four feet tall. She would have slept in trees to remain safe from giant predators like sabre-toothed cats. And she was likely a vegetarian who munched on plants. Little Foot had powerful hands and a special big toe that allowed for better climbing. This week, researchers studying her skeleton learned something new. They shared that Little Foot was capable of different head movements than modern humans. This was likely due to the fact that Little Foot spent so much time in trees and was an expert climber. Humans have lost those special abilities and don’t need their heads to move as far back or forward. That discovery is thanks to the fact that Little Foot retained her atlas, or the topmost cervical vertebrae between the head and neck. In addition to understanding more about head movements, the atlas can also share information about blood flow to the brain through… Read full this story

• Face of Ancient Human Ancestor That Lived 3.8 Million Years Ago Revealed: 'A Game Changer in Our Understanding of Human Evolution'
• Ape-like fossil discovered in South Africa and thought to represent a human ancestor is NOT in our direct lineage after all, study finds
• Homo naledi: New species of human ancestor discovered in South Africa
• First evidence of mysterious, ancient humans called Denisovans found outside of their cave
• Exoplanets, black holes, human ancestors and new dinosaurs: The 2010s were stellar for space and science discoveries
• 'New species' of ancient human found
• First human ancestors to leave Africa died out in Java, scientists say
• Ancient humans, dubbed 'Denisovans', interbred with us
• The First Dinosaurs Looked Like Crocodiles, New Research Suggests
• Ancient human species made ‘last stand’ 100,000 years ago on Indonesian island

Ancient human ancestor 'Little Foot' probably lived in trees, new research finds have 324 words, post on edition.cnn.com at March 20, 2020. This is cached page on Goose Art. If you want remove this page, please contact us.