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Our antecedent " Lucy , " a young adultAustralopithecus afarensis , became world - far-famed half a century ago afterDonald Johansonand workfellow discovered her remarkably stark underframe in Ethiopia . Today , Lucy is an important touchstone in human organic evolution because she live 3.2 million days ago , evolutionarily halfway between our copycat ancestor and us .
But Lucy is just one of many famous hominin fossils . From the " Taung Child " to " the Hobbit , " here are some of the most iconic fogey that have transform what we recognize about human evolution and our tangled family tree .
What Selam, anAustralopithecus afarensischild, might have looked like.
Related : Our mixed - up human family : 8 human relatives that went extinct ( and 1 that did n’t )
Australopithecines
The very first australopithecine to be recognized as a bipedal hominin was theTaung Child , discovered by Raymond Dart in South Africa in1924 . He name the fossilAustralopithecus africanus , which means " southern ape from Africa . " However , it take nearly 20 years for the scientific community to accept the find , in part because the " missing link " between apes and homo was expected to be found in Asia or Europe , not in Africa . Now , the Taung Child isheraldedas one of the most important dodo of the twentieth century , as its skeleton facilitate to prove that bipedalism evolved before a large brain did .
Another complete skull from an adultA. africanuswas nicknamed Mrs. Ples after its original genus , Plesianthropus(“near - human " ) . Mrs. Ples was expose in 1947 , when palaeontologist Robert Broom accidentally blasted her skull aside while using dynamite to turn up in the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa . In cattiness of its inauspicious discovery , after the skull was reassemble , Mrs. Ples became the most complete australopithecine skull ever found , dating back 2.35 million days .
In 1959 , an extremely robust australopithecine was happen upon by Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania . Leakey originally named the skullZinjanthropus boisei — " Zinj " is an old name for East Africa — and affectionately called him " Dear Boy . " But his massive jaw , as well as teeth four prison term the size of humans ' , led the press to nickname him " Nutcracker Man . "
Reproductions of the skulls of the Taung child (left) and Mrs. Ples (right).
This discovery try out that there were two kinds of australopithecine — one very full-bodied and one more slender — roaming Africa 2.5 million to 1 million years ago . When this new fossil was reported at a conference , Dart reportedly joked , " What would have materialise if Mrs. Ples had play Dear Boy one dark nighttime ? "
The Homo genus
Although Lucy is a comprehensive specimen , the most complete somebody ever found is that of Nariokotome Boy , aHomo erectuswho survive about 1.5 million years ago . Also calledTurkana Boy , this youngster , who was 11 or 12 age old when he give out , was found in 1984 in Kenya by paleontologist Kamoya Kimeu . Turkana Boy ’s anatomy revealed a soundbox case astonishingly close to ours — he may have progress to 6 animal foot ( 1.85 meters ) magniloquent and 150 pounds ( 68 kilograms ) if he had reached adulthood ; he had a large brainiac ; and he was in full adapt for effective walking and run .
While Nariokotome Boy was likely one of our collective antecedent , two diverging offshoot of our family Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree also have noted member : the " Hobbits , " found on the island of Flores in Indonesia , andHomo naledi , from the Rising Star Cave in South Africa .
frame found in a cave in Indonesia in 2004surprised researchersbecause of their tiny size and their relatively late time systema skeletale : 700,000 to 50,000 year ago . At just 3 foot , 6 inches tall ( 1.06 time ) , the members of the freshly identify species , Homo floresiensis , were dub " Hobbits , " and one female was named " Flo " . These individuals created stone tools and walk upright , but other parts of their anatomy were more australopithecine - like , similar to Lucy . No clear explanation has been given for why theHobbits were so small , but one guess is island nanism , where enceinte animals develop to be small over many contemporaries when food for thought is scarce .
A reproduction of the Turkana boy
Related : Lucy ’s last day : What the iconic fogy reveals about our ancient ancestor ’s last hours
Meanwhile , in South Africa , anthropologists discoveredH. naledideep in the Rising Star Cave system . The most complete individual was nicknamedNeo , which means " gift " in the Sesotho language . Neo was a tumid adult male , and osseous tissue from nearly every part of his trunk were recover . H. naledihad a mix of ancient and modern build — hand that were adapt for mounting and groundwork that were adapted for walk — that was surprising for a species that lived from 336,000 to 236,000 years ago .
While questions about Flo and Neo burst , some famous fogey are respond long - standing questions about our evolutionary chronicle .
A reproduction of “Flo”, aHomo floresiensisand its skull.
Neanderthals and hybrids
For many class after they were first identified in 1856 , scientist think Neanderthals were unintelligent , cave - dwell brutes who bring nothing to advanced humans . But the find ofDenisovansin Russia in 2010 and advances in ancient DNA analysis evince that modern humans , Neanderthalsand Denisovans were actually " kissing cousins . "
ivory from a 13 - year - old girlnicknamed Dennywere witness in the Denisova cave andstudied in 2018 . Denny ’s genome showed that she had a Neandertal mother and a Denisovan father , hold her the first — and , to date , only — first - generation hybrid hominin ever discovered . Over the retiring 15 yr , multiple studies have break that Neanderthals , Denisovans andHomo sapiensmet and meld many times , but 90,000 - class - previous Denny remains the post-horse child for hybridise between archaic and modern homo .
— Ancient human root Lucy was not alone — she lived aboard at least 4 other proto - human mintage , emerge inquiry suggests
People gathered around “Neo,” aH. naledifossil skeleton, in a display case.
— Our ancestor Lucy may have used instrument more than 3 million class ago
— Neanderthals and forward-looking humans interbred ' at the critical point of human migration ' in Iran , subject field finds
Although Neanderthals survived for hundreds of thousands of year , theyeventually sound extinct . " Thorin , " whose skull and teeth were ascertain in France in 2015 , may have been one of the last Neanderthals , around 42,000 years ago . distinguish after a dwarf in J. R. R. Tolkien ’s " The Hobbit , " Thorin has furnish grounds that Neanderthals died out because they were keep apart . When researcher sequence Thorin ’s genome , they found that his root went 50,000 year without interchange genes with other Neanderthals .
Denny and Thorin have revealed that , although antediluvian and modern homo did interact for thousands of year , eventually the Denisovans and Neanderthals disappeared as separate population , although some of their factor go on in humans .
