41 years ago, on a Sunday morning in late November 1974, a research team was digging a remote site in the region Afar, Ethiopia.
The fossil found in 1974 was named Lucy in the song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds “by the Beatles.
Lucy is the world’s most famous skeleton. 41 years ago, a group of paleontologists discovered in Hadar, northeastern Ethiopia, the set of fossils of Australopithecus that lived 3.2 million years ago. It was a female 1.1 meters high and this was the first discovery of a humanoid in good condition that can explain the relationship between primates and humans.
For a survey of the area, paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson discovered a small piece of bone from his elbow.
He immediately realized it was a human ancestor. And found many remains more.
“When I looked to my left I saw pieces of a skull, a piece of jaw and a pair of vertebrae,” says Johanson.
It was clear that the discovery of the skeleton represented a milestone. sediments in the area had 3.2 million years old
“I realized that it was part of a skeleton of more than three million years,” he explains . scientific
It was the oldest hominid was found
Later I also learned that was the most complete. 40% of the skeleton had been preserved
At night, in the camp, Johanson put a cassette that had brought the Beatles and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” began to ring.
Because of its size, thought Johanson the skeleton was of a woman.
“Why do not you call Lucy?” someone said.
The suggestion fell in handy.
“Suddenly,” recalls Johanson, “she became a person.”
How old was he when he died Lucy? Did he have children? As it was? Is our direct ancestor, the missing link in the chain of the human family?
Forty years later, science is beginning to answer some of these questions.
The Taung child
Although it was a new species, Lucy was not the first Australopithecus found. It was the Taung child, a fossilized skull of a young boy who lived about 2.8 million years ago in Taung in South Africa.
It was found in 1924 and analyzed by the anatomist Raymond Dart. Dart realized that it belonged to another species called Australopithecus africanus.
“I knew with a look that I had in my hands was not an ordinary anthropoid brain (…). It was a replica of a brain three times larger than that of a baboon and considerably larger than that of an adult chimpanzee “he says.
robust jaw and long arms
When Lucy appeared, anthropologists accepted that early Australopithecines were human beings, not just apes.
What was Lucy? This was one of the first questions that arose.
His skull, jaw and teeth were like those of an ape than other Australopithecus.
where was embedded brain was very small, no larger than a chimpanzee.
He had a strong jaw, a small face and long, hanging arms.
Johanson realized immediately that walked upright by the shape and position of your pelvis.
His knees and ankles also reflected that walked on two feet.
This reinforced the idea that walking upright It was one of the selective pressures that pushed humanity forward.
Walk, a feature exclusively human
The first hominids did not need a larger brain evolutionarily to get away from the apes.
Although the largest brain would be important later, walking is one of the traits that make us uniquely human.
But, also, Lucy spent time in trees.
And maybe it’s impelled to walk as a way to approach the branches that were too flexible to ride them.
The remains remain in the Ethiopian Natural History Museum in Addis Ababa in a vault to which the public has no access. However, the Ethiopian government decided in 2007 to make the skeleton of the guard to take you on a tour of the United States. For seven years, Lucy toured several cities and hundreds of people could see the pieces of skull, ribs, pelvis and femur of the issue.
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