Lucy

1 Pages 315 Words

Lucy was found by Donald C. Johanson Ph.D. and Tom Gray on November 30th 1974, in
the Hadar Region in Ethiopia and was named after the song “Lucy in the Sky With
Diamonds”. She is special because she lived just less than 3.18 million years and because
about 40% of her skeleton was found. Lucy walked on two legs and was about 3’6” tall
and weighed 60 to 65 Lb..
Lucy was a part of the species Australopithecus afarensis. The species was named
by Donald Johanson and T. White in 1978. The species was eventually accepted by most
researchers as a new species of australopithecine and a likely candidate for a human
ancestor. Lucy is possibly the best known specimen of Australopithecus afarensis.
Australopithecus afarensis is a sexually dimorphic species which means that the males are
bigger than the females this is how we know Lucy was a female. Some of the
characteristics of Australopithecus afarensis is a low forehead, a bony ridge over the eyes,
a flat nose, no chin, more human like teeth, pelvis and leg bones resembled those of
modern man.
Dr. Donald C. Johanson, one of the people who discovered Lucy is one of the
world's best known paleoanthropologist. He received his Masters Degree and Ph.D. in
1970 and 1974 from the University of Chicago, where he studied human paleontology. He
developed the distinguished Laboratory of Physical Anthropology in Cleveland Museum
of National History.
Lucy must have been at least 20 years old because her wisdom teeth had fully
come in. Her head looked primitive and her brain was not much bigger than a
chimpanzee's . She was an ape with a human looking body but underdeveloped skull and
brain. We obviously still had a long way to come in the 3.18 million years between then
and now, but Lucy already showed clear differences from the normal apes. The shape of
her hip bones and her upright posture means that Lucy is closer to us than the chimpanzee,
the closest living relative...