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Science In Action: More Evidence that Lucy Climbed Trees

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01/12/2016 GMT

More Evidence that Lucy Climbed Trees

BBC World Service - Science In Action, More Evidence that Lucy Climbed Trees

The bones of hominin Lucy, show she may have walked upright, but she still climbed trees

The bones of hominin Lucy, show she may have walked upright, but she still climbed trees.

Detailed analysis of the fossilised bones of the 3.18 million year old hominin, known as Lucy, show she may have walked upright, but she still spent a lot of time climbing trees. Measuring the strength, and dimensions, of Australopithecus afarensis’ arm and leg bones, using high-powered CT scans, and comparing these to chimpanzees and modern humans, the team at University of Texas in Austin, show Lucy was more Chimpanzee-like in anatomical structure than modern humans. 

Batteries from Radioactive Waste
Given that 1 gram of waste radioactive carbon contains as much energy as one billion AA batteries, why not harness this? This is exactly what scientists at the University of Bristol have been doing. They have been making diamonds out of the waste carbon from Magnox reactors, wrapping them in non-radioactive diamond and harnessing the electron flow to make batteries which could last thousands of years.

Bats and Birds
For the first time, nest-hole cameras have captured two different types of animals using the same nest hole. Noctule bats and Common starling chicks are bunking up in the same hole. Is this down to a shortage of suitable nesting holes? Or are they happy to share warmth and protection?

Mongoose Cooperation
Dwarf mongooses are a noisy lot. They communicate with different squeaks within their pack. Some calls are used by pups to beg for food, others let the rest of the group know that sentinels are guarding them, and alarm calls can spell out threats from different predators. Researchers at the University of Bristol have been in Africa teasing mongoose packs with rubber snakes to try and understand why when one mongoose calls ‘snake’ only his closest friends in the group respond.

Image: A sculptor's rendering of the hominid Australopithecus afarensis, © Dave Einsel/Getty Images

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