It’s useful to be able to run Hans Neleman/Getty Images
The ancient human species Australopithecus afarensis may have been the earliest hominin to run on two legs. Although it had relatively short, ape-like legs, A. afarensis may have had a long Achillesâ tendon just like modern humans do â a feature that helps us to run more efficiently.
Conventional thinking is that early hominins like A. afarensis â the species to which the famous Lucy fossil belonged â learned to walk long before they could run. Lucy was an ape-like bipedal hominin sometimes seen as a likely direct ancestor of the earliest species…
