Introduction
Lucy is a famous fossil specimen of the extinct hominin species Australopithecus afarensis (Fig. 1) discovered in 1974 at Hadar, Ethiopia, by paleoanthropologist Donald C. Johanson. A. afarensis was a small-brained, large-jawed, bipedal hominin that has since been discovered at several other sites in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and possibly Chad. The known time range of the species is c. 3.8–3.0 Ma. The discovery of Lucy changed perceptions about the timing and nature of the first appearance of traits that make us human.
Lucy (A.L. 288-1 partial skeleton) (Image courtesy of the Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University)
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Wilkins, J. (2014). Lucy. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_706
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