Lucy was discovered in Ethiopia 50 years ago and was just one.16 meters tall – but she still towers over our understanding of human origins

In 1974, the US paleoanthropologist conducted a study in Hadar within the distant wasteland of Ethiopia Donald Johanson and PhD student Tom Gray found a chunk of an elbow joint protruding from the dirt of a ravine. It turned out to be the primary of 47 bones from a single individual – an early human ancestor Johanson named “Lucy.” Her discovery would overturn every little thing scientists thought we knew in regards to the evolution of our own lineage.

Lucy was a member of the species Australopithecus afarensisan extinct hominin – a bunch that features humans and our fossil relatives. Australopithecus afarensis lived between 3.8 and a couple of.9 million years ago within the region of what’s now Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. Lucy was dated to be 3.2 million years old and was, on the time of her discovery, the oldest and most complete human ancestor ever found.

Two characteristics distinguish humans from all other primates: their large brains and the flexibility to face and walk on two legs as an alternative of 4. Before Lucy's discovery, scientists thought that our large brains will need to have evolved first, since all known human fossils already had large brains. But Lucy stood on two legs and had a small brain, not much larger than that of a chimpanzee.

This became immediately clear when scientists reconstructed her skeleton in Cleveland, Ohio. A photographer took a photograph of four-year-old Grace Latimer – who was visiting her father Bruce Latimer, a member of the research team – next to Lucy. The two were in regards to the same height, illustrating Lucy's small stature and small brain. And Lucy was no small child: Based on her teeth and bones, scientists estimated that she was fully grown When she dies.

The photo also showed how human Lucy was – especially her attitude. Along with the invention of 3.6 million yr old fossilized footprintscreated by members of her species, Lucy proved conclusively that standing and walking upright was step one within the evolution of humans. In fact, large brains didn’t appear in our lineage until well over 1 million years after Lucy's life.

Lucy's bones have adaptations that allow her to have an upright posture and bipedal locomotion. In particular, her femur is angled, her spine is curved in an S shape, and her pelvis or hip bone is brief and bowl-shaped.

These features are also present in the skeleton of recent humans. They allow us, like Lucy, to face, walk and run on two legs without falling over – even when balancing on one leg in mid-step.

In the 50 years since Lucy's discovery, her influence on scientists' understanding of human origins has been immeasurable. She has inspired paleoanthropologists to explore unexplored areas, formulate recent hypotheses and develop and apply novel techniques and methods.

Even as recent fossils are discovered, Lucy stays central to modern research into the origins of man. As Anthropologist and paleoecologistI do know that they still the reference point to understanding the anatomy of early human ancestors and the evolution of our own bodies. Knowledge in regards to the human fossil record and the evolution of our lineage has increased exponentially based on Lucy's discovery.