In 1974, Lucy, a 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus
afarensis, made her debut—or at least her skeletal remains did, with an age
determined by radiometric dating. A. afarensis may represent one of the
earliest members of the hominid species, the human branch of the evolutionary
tree. Unlike other anthropological findings, where fossils or a few bone
fragments have been discovered, this one finding represented 40 percent of an
entire skeleton. Based upon the size of the pelvic opening, it was inferred
that these were the remains of a female; she was 43 inches (3.1 meters) tall
and weighed ~ 66 lbs. (30 kilograms). For many years, Lucy’s skeleton was
exhibited in well-publicized tours in the United States, and in 2013 the
remains were returned home. A plastic replica and related artifacts are now displayed
in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, at the National Museum of Ethiopia.
First signs of fossil remains near Hadat, in
northeastern Ethiopia, were made in 1972 by the French geologist Maurice Taieb.
To explore the site, he arranged for a tri-national team of scientists that
included an American anthropologist, Donald Johanson, the British archeologist
Mary Leakey, and the French paleontologist Yves Coppens. During the second
season of their field study, in 1974, Lucy was found and was named after a
Beatles song played in their field camp, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
Examination of the pelvic and leg bones led to the
conclusion that Lucy was bipedal, while the capacity of the cranial cavity was
comparable to that of an ape, around one-third the size of modern humans. This
has led scientists to conclude that bipedalism preceded an increase in brain
size during human evolution, a view that is contrary to what was previously
believed. Some researchers have questioned whether Lucy and A. afarensis are, in fact, ancestors to
modern humans. Among other remains found, most in the same area of Africa,
there is no evidence that A. afarensis used shaped tools or fire.
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