Lucy (hominid)
Early hominin skeleton showing bipedalism preceded brain growth.
AL 288-1, commonly known as Lucy or Dinkʼinesh, is a collection of several hundred pieces of fossilized bone comprising 40% of the skeleton of a female of the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis. Discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia at Hadar in the Awash Valley of the Afar Triangle by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, Lucy lived around 3.2 million years ago. The skeleton presents a small skull akin to that of non-hominin apes plus evidence of a bipedal and upright walking gait, supporting the view that bipedalism preceded increase in brain size in human evolution.
Quick Facts
- Catalog Number
- AL 288-1
- Common Name
- Lucy
- Species
- Australopithecus afarensis
- Age
- 3.2 million years
- Place Discovered
- Hadar, Ethiopia
- Date Discovered
- 24 November 1974
- Discovered By
- Donald Johanson
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Lucy was named by Pamela Alderman after the 1967 Beatles song 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds', which was played loudly and repeatedly in the expedition camp after the first day of work at the Hadar recovery site. The fossil assembly and associated artefacts were exhibited publicly in a two-year tour of the United States beginning in 2006, called 'Lucy's Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia'. There was discussion of risks of damage to the unique fossils, and other museums preferred to display casts. The original fossils were returned to Ethiopia in 2013, and subsequent exhibitions have used casts.
Reader's Guide
Lucy became famous worldwide as the story of her discovery and reconstruction was published by Johanson and Edey. The skeleton provided crucial evidence that bipedalism evolved before large brain size in the human lineage. A 2016 study proposes that Australopithecus afarensis was, at least partly, tree-dwelling, though the extent is debated. By 2024, after 50 years of follow-on research, the scientific community was of consensus that Lucy's species was not the earliest known member of the human family. Contrary to earlier beliefs that her species first walked upright in open savanna grasslands, later evidence suggests they walked and survived in grassy woodlands among deciduous trees. Her species adapted to various habitats over millennia, enduring severe changes in climate, and was not alone in its environment, with multiple hominin species existing in the same time period.
Did You Know?
- Lucy's skeleton is 40% complete, one of the most complete early hominin skeletons found.
- She was named after the Beatles song 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds', played repeatedly at the expedition camp.
- The knee joint of a related fossil, AL 129-1, found in 1973, showed upright walking and was dated to around 3.4 million years old.
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