Lucy "Australopithecus afarensis" originally found by Johansen with discovery of a kneecap, which he said proved we were looking at a transitional species. Then over better part of 5 years rest or 40% of a skeleton emerged and is now hailed as a prime example of a transitional species between Humans and apes. They claim that skull shows characteristics of both ape (sagital crest) and human (incisor teeth).Now let me stop right there for a second. Whenever I make above statement, many evolutionists jump on this and say, “See transitional fossil, has both ape and human characteristics, making it a prime example of a direct link to modern humans.” What they are failing to grasp is one very important, Lucy’s mandible didn’t have intact teeth. The teeth that are supposed to represent Lucy were scattered and collected over entire site area consisting of approx. 1.5 miles. Within this area were many, many modern primate skeletons. Plus several modern primates have incisor teeth very similar to humans (after all, we all have same designer.)
Evolutionist claim that based on angle of knee, that Lucy must have walked upright, yet they then tell us that her hands and feet were curved very much like a pygmy chimp, very adaptive to tree climbing. (What they fail to be mentioned here is that no feet or hands were found with Lucy, they are using bones found from some other skeletal remains found within area of 1.5 miles, which covers same area where Lucy was found).
Johansen also admits within his report that skull that is shown in all books as belonging to a reconstructed Lucy, was actually pieced together from 13 different "individuals" which they then make claim are all related to Lucy, because they were found in same vicinity. Speaking as an archaeologist, I would never be allowed to take materials found over such a large area and combine them together in order to make a "complete" picture.
Lucy's supposed knee angle (where tibia and femur meet) is said to be 15 degrees. The angle for humans is 9 degrees (the same as spider monkeys and orangutans) if it was more we would have knocked knees. The common consensus is that Lucy would have been a very adept tree climber. Again, most evolutionist point to this to show dual characteristics, but fail to remember that most paleoanthropologist don’t believe that these bones all came from same individual an also that Lucy is put together completely wrong.
Peter Schmid, a Swiss anthropologist, claims Lucy was not a bipedal walker, but instead would have rotated her torso much like a gorilla. He points to further flaws in her reconstruction. If Lucy is put together properly then her bone structure isn't correct. Shcmid says if Lucy is correct, then ribs are too heavy and upper thorax is too small to take in oxygen to cool her. He claims with this setup Lucy would have panted much like a dog to cool itself off. Despite showing semi-human characteristics, Australopithecus afarensis is nothing more than an extinct ape.
As a matter of fact, even famous Richard Leakey considered by most to be greatest hominid fossil hunter doesn’t agree with Lucy. He says, “no determination could be made concerning species of Lucy and that skull was merely "imagination made of plaster of paris."
Here is some stuff that most people are not aware of....
Joseph Weiner, The Natural History of Man, 1971, pp.45-46.
"The ape-like profile of Australopithecus is so pronounced that its outline can be superimposed on that of a female chimpanzee with a remarkable closeness of fit."
Richmond and Strait, "Evidence that Humans Evolved from Knuckle-Walking Ancestor," Nature 2000.
"Regardless of status of Lucy's knee joint, new evidence has come forth that Lucy has morphology of a knuckle-walker."
The other problem here is that truly no bipedal bones have been recovered to support upright walking of Australopithecus. The majority of all recovered fossils consist of isolated teeth, mandible fragments, skull fragments (the top portion of head) and a few fragments of arm bones. With this sketchy evidence they have concocted a hugely fabricated story about Lucy and her "relatives".