Lucy is one of the most famous fossils in the world. She is a partial skeleton of an early human ancestor who lived about 3.2 million years ago in Africa. Lucy was discovered in 1974 by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson and his team, who were working in Ethiopia. The fossil was given its name because the song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” by The Beatles was playing on a tape recorder at the time of the discovery.
Lucy is classified as australopithecine, which means “southern ape.” This group of humans is thought to be our direct ancestors and includes other famous fossils such as “Ardi” and “Selam.” Lucy is believed to have stood about four feet tall and weighed around 60 pounds. She had a small brain (about one-third the size of a modern human brain) and long arms that were well-suited for climbing trees. Her teeth and jaw resembled those of apes, but she also had some distinctly human features, such as forward-facing eyes and small breasts.
Since her discovery, Lucy has been an important part of our understanding of human evolution. She has helped scientists learn about our earliest ancestors and how we developed into the Homo sapiens we are today.