Lucy

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Where was Lucy found?

Lucy was found in Ethiopia on November 30, 1974 by Professor Donald Johanson, now Director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. He was co-directing an anthropological expedition to the remote site of Hadar. situated in the desolate Afar Region of Ethiopia. The international, multidisciplinary team of scientists and students was searching for remains of ancient animals, particularly human ancestor foosils.

While exploring the ancient Hadar badlands, under the scorching noontime sun, Johanson spotted part of a right elbow and immediately identified it as belonging to an ancient human ancestor. Following two weeks of intensive excavation and screening, significant portions of a skeleton were recovered. Since there was no duplication of bones, it was certain that the skeleton of a single individual was being collected. Never before had such a spectacular find been made in Africa!

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Why is she called Lucy?

Discovery of such a remarkable specimen as the Hadar skeleton was caused for celebration in the expedition camp. Sometime during the festivities, a suggestion was made to name the skeleton "Lucy" after a Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds": which was playing on a tape recorder. Since then, the skeleton has known as "Lucy" but she also has an Amharic name. Dinkenesh, which means "Wonderful thing". The Afar people call her Heelomali.

Lucy is perhaps the best-known discovery of a fos- sil human ancestor from the last century. The name Lucy derives from the Latin "lux" which means light, ans she has indeed thrown much light on human origins.

How old is Lucy?

The rock strata at Nadar were deposited in an ancient lake and river system. Fortunately the Lucy skeleton was foundjust above a volcanic ash layer containing minerals useful for geological dating. Fortunate because, laboratory analysis of this ash, using a method known as Argon dating, provided a fairly precise age of 3.2 million years for Lucy.

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Who was Lucy?

Lucy was definitely a human ancestor not an ape. Although her brain ape-Iike, being only about one- quarter the size of modern humans, she was distinctively human because she walked upright, on two legs. Bipedal stance and locomotion are diagnostic features of us and all of our ancestors since our split from the four legged apes some 6 to 10 million years ago.

We know that Lucy was capable of upright walking from the anatomical clues seen in hip, knees and ankle. The backbones also show the distinctive curvature seen in upright hominids. Furthermore, evidence from foot bones belonging to Lucy's species confirms that her big toe was not used in grasping as it is climbing primates like the apes. The bipedal nature of Lucy's species was dramatically proved when 3.5 million years-old hominid footprints closely resembling those of humans were excavated at Laetoli, Tanzania.

The scientific identity of Lucy was revealed after long and careful laboratory study and analysis. Lucy's over ail anatomy confirmed that she be- longed to an early genus of human ancestor calI Australopithecus. (Today aIl humans belong in the genus Homo and are called Homo Sapiens.) However, many distinctive details of her teeth and bones revealed that Lucy represented a new species. Hence in 1978 she was designated Australopithecus afarensis -a scientific appellation that celebrates the Afar people and the Afar region where she found.

The precise placement of Australopithecus afarensis on the human family tree continues to be de- parted. However, one interpretation, embraced by many anthropologists suggests that afarensis was the last common ancestor to our own lineage, Homo, and other Australopithecus species which went extinct.

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What did Lucy look like?

Bones of the Lucy skeleton are diminutive; for ex- ample the thighbone is only 28 centimeters long. Reconstruction of body size suggests she was just over a meter tall and weighed roughly 30 kilograms. We know she was a young, but a fully matured adult because the ends of her bones (the site of growth centers) had fused and her third molar (the wisdom tooth) had erupted, but was only slightly worn.

Therefore, since the skeleton is adult, but quite small it is local to surmise that it was a female. Now, with close to 400 human ancestor fossils from Hadar, it has become obvious that a large size difference existed between males and females of her species. This difference between the sexes was a common feature of early human ancestors, much like we seen in some apes species today.

Unfortunately most of Lucy's skull was broken and lost before she was recovered. However, other fossil specimens of A. afarensis suggest that in general appearance, the skull was rather ape-Iike with a small brain. sloping forehead and oroiectina face.

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Why is Lucy so important?

Lucy is the celebrity hominid find of the 20th Century .Although older and even more complete specimens of early human ancestors have been found, in Ethiopia, and elsewhere in eastern Africa, Lucy continues to attract the attention of scientists and lay people alike. Her completeness and a great antiquity contributed to her specialness, but most importantly she has become a touchstone for re- search into human origins. Virtually every new fossil hominid discovery made in Africa is compared to the Lucy find. She is the benchmark by which other finds are judged.

The discovery of Lucy brought worldwide attention to Ethiopia and now more than 25 years later, she continues to inspire on-going field research and important message that Lucy brings us is that the roots for all humanity reach back to African Discovery at numerous fossil-rich Sites in Ethiopia. Per- haps the single most soil -Africa was indeed the cradle of humankind!

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How did Lucy live?

Although details of Lucy's lifestyle are lost in the mists of time, we can surmise that she lived in small, nomadic groups and from wear on her teeth she survived on vegetarian diet perhaps including lot of fruits. Since her skeleton was found in a sand, near a lake margin that contained fossilized crocodile and turtle eggs, it is not impossible that these were also part of her diet. As to her tools making abilities, no stone stools have ever been found associated with Lucy's species, but they may have used perishable tools made of wood or grass to dig up roots and tubers and eat insects such as termites.

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Photo and Script provided by Professor Donald Johanson