Lucy the Australopithecus: who was she and what was her life like?

Lucy the Australopithecus she was a hominid female, who lived more than 3 million years ago. The fossil remains of Lucy were found in 1974 in Hadar, a village located in northeastern Ethiopia. The discovery of her was a historic moment in the history of mankind.

Lucy belonged to the species of Australopithecus afarensis, an ancestor of Homo Sapiens. It is considered the first bipedal hominid. In this article we will explain who Lucy was, her characteristics, and what her discovery meant.

Lucy the Australopithecus: who was she?

Lucy the Australopithecus was a very important find for the history of the human species. On November 24, 1974, Lucy's skeletal remains (approximately 40% of them) were found, thanks to excavations carried out in Hadar. Hadar is a village located in northeastern Ethiopia (it is also the name of the archaeological site located around it).

Specifically, up to 52 bones of Lucy were gathered (years later, in the same area, the skeletal remains of six other individuals were found, two of them children). Lucy's bones were found quite complete and preserved.

Once Lucy the Australopithecus was found, it took a few weeks to confirm to which species these remains belonged. It was Donald Johanson, an American paleoanthropologist, and his team, who confirmed that these bones belonged to the species called "Australopithecus afarensis", an ancestor of Homo Sapiens.

Experts determined that Lucy the Australopithecus lived 3.2 million years ago. But who was Lucy? It was a female, who was approximately 1.1 meters tall.

Who was Donald Johanson?

The paleoanthropologist who found the body of Lucy the Australopithecus, along with his team, was Donald johanson. This American, born in Chicago in 1943, was only 31 years old when he found Lucy's remains.

The find was made thanks to an anthropological mission funded, in part, by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Johanson was responsible for that mission.

Years later, Johanson founded the Institute of Human Origins in Berkeley, California. It is also known that, recently, Johanson gave a lecture on Lucy at the University of the Americas in Puebla (UDLAP), in Mexico, entitled "Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins".

The importance of Lucy's find

Lucy was the first find of a humanoid in good condition. But why was Lucy so important? Basically because her finding made it possible to describe the relationship between primates and humans for the first time.

We have already seen how Lucy was an ancestor of Homo Sapiens; furthermore, her species was a direct evolutionary connection with the primate species.

On the other hand, the discovery of Lucy the Australopithecus is of great importance because it is known that it was the first hominid to walk upright.

What was Lucy like?

We have advanced some features of Lucy, but we are going to explain a little more about how it was determined that she was this female of the species “Australopithecus afarensis”. Lucy was 1.1 meters tall or so, and she had legs very similar to those of humans today. She lived 22 years of life, approximately, and weighed 28 kilos.

Furthermore, it was discovered that Lucy had had children; exactly how many are unknown, but it is thought to be around 3 or more.

Thus, Lucy's features combined human features with features similar to those of a chimpanzee. As for the intelligence of Lucy the Australopithecus, it is believed that this was not very high; this is known from the size of her cranial cavity (similar to that of a chimpanzee).

On the other hand, the different studies on Lucy the Australopithecus determined that this species already walked on two lower extremities. Lucy's feet were arched, just like those of humans today (it was the test that showed that she was bipedal).

Why the name Lucy?

The name of Lucy the Australopithecus comes from a song that sounded on the radio the day of her discovery. That song was a Beatles hit, and it was called "Lucy in the sky with diamonds." In this way, Donald Johanson, the paleoanthropologist responsible for the team that discovered Lucy, baptized her with this name.

Recent research on Lucy

More recent research, specifically a study published in the journal "Nature", has revealed that Lucy actually lived 20 years, and not 22 as believed; what's more, The researchers of this study maintain that Lucy died when she fell from a height of more than 12 meters, and that she died on the spot. The main hypothesis is that she fell from a tree.

This data is supported because, according to the researchers, Lucy's bones suffered fractures compatible with those of a fall from great height. These fractures, then, would not be a consequence of the fossilization process, as was believed.

This study was led by the paleoanthropologist John Kappelman, from the University of Texas at Austin (United States). Kappelman and his team, to reach this conclusion, analyzed CT scans of different parts of Lucy's fossil (her skull, hand, foot, pelvis, and axial skeleton). After analyzing the status of these elements, they compared them with the status of other clinical cases.

More specifically, this study maintains that Lucy stretched her arms trying to avoid the blow of the fall; To affirm this, the experts are based on the analysis of the aforementioned fractures, located in the upper area of ​​her arms.

New discoveries in Ethiopia

On the other hand, after the discovery of Lucy the Australopithecus, new fossils were discovered in the same region of Ethiopia; specifically 250 fossils, belonging to 17 different individuals.

Where is Lucy now?

Currently the skeletal remains of Lucy the Australopithecus are in the Ethiopian Museum of Natural History, located in Addis Ababa. They remain in a security camera (in an armored display case), and not even the public has access to them.

But has Lucy always stayed in the Ethiopian Museum? Not; In 2007, the Ethiopian Government decided to take the skeleton out of it and take it "on tour" to the United States (USA). And they do it like that; Lucy was traveling from city to city for seven years. The positive of all this is that many people were able to observe the remains of it (pieces of skull, pelvis, ribs ...).

Another curiosity is that, in 2015, Barack Obama, then president of the United States, was able to see and touch Lucy's skeleton, on a visit to Ethiopia.

Bibliographic references

• Edey, Maitland A.; Johanson, Donald C. (1990). The essential question: questions and answers about evolution. Editorial Planeta.

• Haykal, I. (2018). Lucy the Australopithecus: this was the fossil that changed everything. Psychology and Mind.

• Johanson, D. and Edey, M. (1993). The first ancestor of man. Editorial Planeta.