Did you know that Lucy is perhaps the most famous human ancestor in the world, she is 3.2 million years old and was the first skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis to be found, although her remains are only 40% complete.
Discovered in 1974, it was for about 20 years the first known ancestral human species.
Facts about Lucy
- On November 24, 1974, Lucy was found in Africa, near the town of Hadar in the Awash Valley of the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia.
- She was discovered by American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Tom Gray.
- Lucy got her name from a Beatles song titled “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” which was heard at the camp the night they first discovered the fossils.
- She was 1.1 meters tall and weighed about 64 pounds.
- Lucy’s size, 1.1 meters tall and weighing 64 pounds confirm that she is a woman since later fossil discoveries established that the males of A. afarensis were much larger than the females.
- Lucy was the first Australopithecus afarensis to be discovered, but to date there have been more than 300 discoveries of the species.
- In 2016, a group of researchers from the University of Texas concluded that she fell from a great height, although it has never been officially determined how Lucy died.
- Her skeleton was taken from Ethiopia and around the U.S. from 2007 to 2013, it is not currently available for public view.
In Nutty Scientists we have different workshops and scientific shows in which through fun experiments and demonstrations, children learn different aspects of science.