Lucy, who was found 50 years in the past in Ethiopia, was solely 3.5 ft lengthy, however she nonetheless eclipses our understanding of human origins.

In 1974, in a survey at Hadar within the distant badlands of Ethiopia, an American paleontologist Donald Johansson Graduate pupil Tom Grey discovered a bit of the elbow joint. It protrudes from the dirt in the furrowThese bones proved to be the primary of 47 bones belonging to a single particular person – an early human ancestor whom Johansson nicknamed “Lucy”. Its discovery might upend every thing scientists thought they knew concerning the evolution of our species.

Lucy was a member of this species Australopithecus afarensisextinct hominins – a gaggle that features people and our fossil family. Australopithecus afarensis It lived from 3.8 million years in the past to 2.9 million years in the past, within the space that’s now referred to as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania. Relationship again to three.2 million years in the past, Lucy was the oldest and most full human ancestor ever found on the time of her discovery.

Two options distinguish people from all different primates: giant brains and standing and strolling on two legs as an alternative of 4. Earlier than Lucy’s discovery, scientists believed that our giant brains should have developed first, as a result of all identified human fossils on the time already had giant brains. However Lucy stood on two legs and had a small mind, not a lot bigger than a chimpanzee’s.

This was instantly obvious when scientists reconstructed her skeleton in Cleveland, Ohio. A photographer snapped a photograph of 4-year-old Grace Latimer – who was visiting her father, Bruce Latimer, a member of the analysis workforce – standing subsequent to Lucy. The 2 had been about the identical measurement, offering a easy illustration of Lucy’s petite stature and thoughts. And Lucy was not a bit of woman: based mostly on her enamel and bones, scientists estimated that She was quite an adult When she died.

The photograph additionally confirmed how human Lucy was, particularly her posture. Together with the 1978 discovery in Tanzania 3.6 million year old fossilized footprintsCreated by members of her personal species, Lucy proved unequivocally that standing and strolling upright was step one in changing into human. In truth, giant brains didn’t seem in our lineage till later More than a million years after Lucy’s life.

Lucy’s bones present diversifications that permit upright posture and bipedal locomotion. Particularly, the femur, or higher leg bone, is indirect. Its backbone is curved in an S-shape; Its pelvis, or hip bone, is brief and bowl-shaped.

These options can be present in trendy human skeletons. They permit us, as Lucy has enabled, to face, stroll and run on two legs with out falling – even once we’re balancing on one foot mid-step.

Within the 50 years since Lucy’s discovery, her impression on scientists’ understanding of human origins has been immeasurable. she has Inspiring paleoanthropologists To survey unexplored areas, put ahead new hypotheses and develop and use new methods and methodologies.

At the same time as new fossils are found, Lucy stays central to trendy analysis on human origins. As Anthropologist and paleontologistI do know it’s It is still the reference point To know the anatomy of early human ancestors and the evolution of our our bodies. Data of the human fossil file and the evolution of our lineage has elevated dramatically, constructing on the muse of Lucy’s discovery.