Lucy (Australopithecus)

"Dinkinesh" redirects here. For the asteroid, see 152830 Dinkinesh.

Lucy
Catalog no.AL 288-1
Common nameLucy
SpeciesAustralopithecus afarensis
Age3.2 million years
Place discoveredAfar Depression, Ethiopia
Date discoveredNovember 24, 1974; 49 years ago (1974-11-24)
Discovered by

AL 288-1, commonly known as Lucy or Dinkʼinesh (Amharic: ድንቅ ነሽ, lit. 'you are marvellous'), is a collection of several hundred pieces of fossilized bone comprising 40 percent of the skeleton of a female of the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis. It was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia, at Hadar, a site in the Awash Valley of the Afar Triangle, by Donald Johanson, a paleoanthropologist of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.[1][2][3]

Lucy is an early australopithecine and is dated to about 3.2 million years ago. The skeleton presents a small skull akin to that of non-hominin apes, plus evidence of a walking-gait that was bipedal and upright, akin to that of humans (and other hominins); this combination supports the view of human evolution that bipedalism preceded increase in brain size.[4][5] A 2016 study proposes that Australopithecus afarensis was at least partly, tree-dwelling, though the extent of this is debated.[6][7]

Lucy was named by Pamela Alderman after the 1967 song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles, which was played loudly and repeatedly in the expedition camp all evening after the excavation team's first day of work on the recovery site.[8] After public announcement of the discovery, Lucy captured much international interest, becoming a household name at the time.

Lucy became famous worldwide, and the story of her discovery and reconstruction was published in a book by Johanson and Edey. Beginning in 2007, the fossil assembly and associated artefacts were exhibited publicly in an extended six-year tour of the United States; the exhibition was called Lucy's Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia. There was discussion of the risks of damage to the unique fossils, and other museums preferred to display casts of the fossil assembly.[9] The original fossils were returned to Ethiopia in 2013, and subsequent exhibitions have used casts.

  1. ^ Johanson & Wong 2009, p. 8.
  2. ^ Johanson & Wong 2009, p. 9.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference iho1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Hadar entry in Encyclopædia (2008).
  5. ^ Tomkins, Stephen (1998). The Origins of Humankind. Cambridge University Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-521-46676-9.
  6. ^ Klein, Joanna (November 30, 2016). "Study Suggests 3.2 Million-Year-Old Lucy Spent a Lot of Time in Trees". New York Times. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
  7. ^ Ruff, Christopher B.; Burgess, M. Loring; Ketcham, Richard A.; Kappelman, John (2016). "Limb Bone Structural Proportions and Locomotor Behavior in A.L. 288-1". PLOS ONE. 11 (11): e0166095. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1166095R. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166095. PMC 5130205. PMID 27902687.
  8. ^ Johanson & Wong 2009, pp. 7–8.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference bloom was invoked but never defined (see the help page).