Child “Lucy” discovered
My first anthro class was History of Human Origins, essentially physical anthropology. That’s where I caught the anthro bug. In 1974 a small, incomplete skeleton was discovered in Olduvai Gorge in Ethiopia. The skeleton was of an early hominid, one that walked upright, but had many "ape-like" characteristics. We know this skeleton better as Lucy. Lucy was a huge breakthrough. It represented a look into human evolution that had never been seen before. Since then, there have been many more finds, but Lucy still holds mythic status. I even have the book Lucy on my shelf. I found today that Lucy’s family has grown, a child "Lucy" found in the same area.
The fossil offers clues about how the species blurred the line between ape and human. For instance, the shape of the shoulder blades resembles a young gorilla’s, suggesting the child could climb trees, but the angle of the femur from knee to hip is close to that of a modern human, implying she walked efficiently on two legs.
"Clearly, we have a species in transition," said Lucy’s discoverer, Donald C. Johanson, director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. "We think we see more or less continuous evolutionary change from about 4 million years to 3 million years. Thus, better than with any other species in Africa, we can watch what’s happening over a million years of evolution."
Why is this important? Is this the "missing link"? This discovery gives us more insight into how we evolved. It suggests that even though Lucy could walk on two legs, climbing trees was still very important. It shows, the development of hominids, it shows what could have be the driving forces in human evolution.
Those mind-boggling things aside, the rarity of this find cannot be understated. A child’s skeleton of that age, OMG … that is so tremendously rare. Since children’s bones are smaller, and more fragile they aren’t preserved in the fossil record well.
Will this find solve all the riddles. No. It will likely big new questions to the fore, but wow, what an amazing thing.
Tags: Lucy, hominids, Australopithecus afarensis
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