Walking with Lucy

Genesis 1:27

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” 

What would it have been like walking with Lucy? Of course, I am not just referring to any girl called Lucy. I am referring to the iconic Lucy, whose fossilized skeletal remains are on show in London’s Natural History Museum, with replicas in many other museums around the world.

Lucy, who is officially known as AL288-1, was found at Hadar, Ethiopia, in 1974. The bones would appear to be those of an adult creature that would stand about 3 feet 6 inches, if she could stand up straight. The famous bones, as well as all its replicas, are mounted in a particular way. Dr. Vij Sodera, who is a medical doctor, describes it thus:

Curiously, the bones are always mounted in such a way as to give the impression of a creature looking much like a human being. However, this presentation is extremely deceptive since, apart from the shape of the pelvis, knee, and ankle joints, the bodily proportions are distinctly ape-like.

Dr. Sodera has a lot of expert analysis of this figure in his book. We will comment on only one aspect – the creature’s feet. The reproduction traditionally displayed next to Lucy’s skeleton shows human-like feet. However, AL288-1 clearly had prehensile feet with a thumb-like big toe – in much the same way as does the orangutan, gorilla, and chimpanzee. Despite being represented as a humanoid ape, it is clear that Lucy was, in fact, fully ape and almost certainly spent a good deal of her time walking on her knuckles, like other apes.

Genesis explains that humans are not evolved apes but separately created by God.     Author: Paul F. Taylor

Prayer: Thank You, Father, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made – made in Your image. Amen.

Ref: Sodera, V. (2009), One Small Speck, pp. 366-369. Image: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.