Lucy (Australopithecus)
 | |
| Catalog no. | AL 288-1 |
|---|---|
| Common name | Lucy |
| Species | Australopithecus afarensis |
| Age | 3.2 million years |
| Place discovered | Afar Depression, Ethiopia |
| Date discovered | November 24, 1974 |
| Discovered by | Johanson and Gray [1] |
Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1. This is a fossil discovery of about 40% of the skeleton of a female Australopithecus afarensis. There are several hundred pieces of bone. The discovery was made in 1974 at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression.
This discovery gave us much scientific evidence. Lucy lived about 3.2 million years ago,[2] and is a hominid.
The skeleton shows that Lucy had a small skull capacity, like an ape, but also that she walked upright like a human. This supported the view that bipedalism came before the increase in brain size in human evolution. Those features are true of all australopithecines.[3][4]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "Instutute of Human Origins". Retrieved 2007-08-30.
- ↑ "Mother of man - 3.2 million years ago". BBC Home. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
- ↑ Johanson D.C. & Maitland A.E. 1981. Lucy: the beginning of humankind. St Albans: Granada, 283–297. ISBN 0-586-08437-1
- ↑ Wood B.A. 1994. Evolution of australopithecines. In Jones S. Martin R. & Pilbeam D. (eds) 2004. The Cambridge encyclopedia of human evolution. 8th ed, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-46786-1
