How they found Lucy, the Australopithecus? | Peru Trade – Trade

Google celebrates a Doodle 41 anniversary of the discovery of the most famous ancestor of humans, Lucy , who lived more than three million years ago. His remains were exhumed on November 24, 1974, near the village of Hadar in Ethiopia, by anthropologists Donald Johanson and Tom Gray.

The researchers found 40% her skeleton, including the skull, forearm, femur, pelvis, lower jaw, and some ribs.

Lucy belongs to a species called Australopithecus afarensis, which is no more a branch of the great hominid family tree.

The hominid group includes humans, other great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans) and all now extinct relatives.

But what distinguishes the first hominids, some of whom might have become moderns humans from other apes, is its ability to walk on two feet.

It is known that Lucy could stand, but studies suggest that it also would have spent much of their time in trees.

Based on analysis of volcanic ash was found in a Lucy , scientists estimated age between 3.18 and 3.2 million years ago.

She got this name in reference to the Beatles song “Lucy in the sky with diamonds”, which is supposed sounded the night celebrated the researchers found.

Because of the size of Lucy , the scientists determined it was a woman. It is believed that the males of her species were bigger. But l or do not yet know is how he died Lucy

According to the Institute of Human Origins of Arizona State University, had been killed by an animal, as a hyena, signals the attack would be in their bones, but not much evidence of it.

The only mark on the bones is a puncture wound from a carnivore tooth on top of your pubic bone, which occurred around the time of his death, but according to scientists, could not be the cause of death.

Earlier this year, it was found that the species Australopithecus Prometheus called Litle Foot (small foot), lived in the same period as Lucy. Also, e n September, scientists discovered a new human ancestor in a cave in South Africa, known as Homo Naledi. The new species is believed to be in the tree of evolution somewhere between the kind of Lucy , the afarensis and Homo erectus.

Source: Business Insider