When you purchase through connectedness on our website , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
From a distance , it might have count like a small child was wend her means through the wave grass along a huge lake . But a airless face would have let out a unusual , in - between creature — a big - eyed imp with a small head and an apelike brass who walk upright like a human .
She may have front warily over her shoulder as she walked , on alert for saber - toothed cats or hyenas . She may have used her secure sleeve to climb the shrubby tree diagram nearby , searching for yield , egg , or insects to eat . Or perhaps she simply rested on the shoring of the croc - infested waters , swig down water on a hot day .
Fifty years ago, anthropologists unearthed the fossil skeleton of anAustralopithecus afarensisand nicknamed her “Lucy.” Since then, we have learned so much about Lucy and her kind that we can recreate her last day.
She belike had no idea it was her last day on Earth .
Roughly 3.2 million years afterward , her skeleton was unearth by paleoanthropologistDonald Johanson and his team on the International Afar Research Expedition .
The spectacularly terminated fossil was nicknamed " Lucy . " And her singular metal money , Australopithecus afarensis , may have been our direct ancestor . Our discoveries about Lucy have translate our understanding of mankind ’s tangled family tree .
Fifty years ago, anthropologists unearthed the fossil skeleton of anAustralopithecus afarensisand nicknamed her “Lucy.” Since then, we have learned so much about Lucy and her kind that we can recreate her last day.
Fifty old age after , we acknowledge so much more about her species . In fact , anthropologist have learned so much about Lucy and her kind that we can now paint a picture of how she survive and die .
Her last day may have been filled with companionship , but it also entailed a persistent hunt for food . And it was belike reign by the ever - present awe of predators .
" I suspect that the last day in her life was fill with danger , " Johanson told Live Science .
Donald Johanson excavating a fossil in 1975.
Finding Lucy
Pamela Alderman , another appendage of the expedition , suggest the squad nickname the skeleton Lucy , after the Beatles birdcall " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds . "
" And it just became iconic , " Johanson order , " a moniker that everybody jazz . "
Lucy ’s find transform the study of ancient human congener .
Donald Johanson with the “Lucy” skeleton in 1975.
" I was in gamey school when she was found,“John Kappelman , a paleoanthropologist at the University of Texas at Austin , tell Live Science . " It really did readjust the way paleoanthropology function . "
Lucy ’s systema skeletale , along with subsequent find of other fossils of her species , have give anthropologists awealth of informationabout what is essentially the halfway point in human evolution . At 3.2 million years old , Lucy and her kind live equidistant in time from our emulator ancestors and contemporary humans .
" She ’s our touchstone,“Jeremy DeSilva , a paleoanthropologist at Dartmouth College , told Live Science . " Everything sort of comes back to her as the computer address spot , and she merit it . "
A comparison of the skeletons of Lucy (left), a chimpanzee (center) and a modern human (right).
“A lot like us”
One thing is fairly sure : Though there were some obvious departure , Lucy see and acted a batch like us .
" If we saw her total out of a foodstuff store today , we would recognize her as upright walk and some variety of homo , " Johanson say .
Although her strong arms and the shape of her finger bonessuggestLucy could climb trees , herpelvisandkneeswere clear adapted to walking on two substructure .
A view of Hadar, Ethiopia, near where Lucy was found.
The size of it of Lucy ’s thigh bone also revealed that she was only about42 inch ( 1.1 cadence ) talland60 to 65 pounds ( 27 to 30 kilograms ) — about the size of it of a 6- or 7 - yr - previous child today . And theeruptionof her wisdom teeth designate that , although she was in her other teens when she died , she was a to the full ripe youthful grownup .
" Australopithecusin general was maturing fast , " DeSilva said , " and it make sense if you ’re on a landscape painting full of marauder . " In species that are oftentimes prey , mortal that grow faster are more likely to pass on their cistron . But australopithecines were unique — while their teeth and bodies matured quickly , their psyche grow more slowly , telling us that they swear quite a bit on learning for endurance , DeSilva sound out .
Her breakthrough also settled a argumentation that was reproof in the early 1970s : Did our big mind acquire before we learned to take the air upright ? Lucy ’s head , which was not much bigger than a chimp ’s , showed the response was no . Our ancestors became biped long before they evolve large Einstein .
An illustration of australopithecines walking in wet ash at Laetoli in Tanzania.
Lucy’s clan
Because her skeleton was found on its own , Lucy ’s " social aliveness " is a little murkier than other parts of her day-after-day life . But many researchers think she lived in a mixed - sex radical of about15 to 20males and female , not unlike modern - daychimpanzees do .
And although there ’s no direct evidence , Lucy ’s gaunt adulthood propose she could havehad a baby . Bringing that relatively heavy - head newborn baby through her comparatively narrow-minded pelvis would have been challenging , which imply she may have had thehelp of a primitive " midwife . "
If Lucy had a infant , she also likely had a collaborator . OtherA. afarensisfossils , such as those ofKadanuumuu , showmale australopithecines were only slightly large than females , which , in primates , usually corresponds to moremonogamous pairings .
Lucy and her form would have spend a pregnant amount of their time avoiding becoming another animal ' lunch . " These small creatures would have been gracious hors d’oeuvres for a saber-toothed tiger or a big cat or hyena , " Johanson said .
Perhaps because of that omnipresent risk , the group likely relied on each other .
" I consider they had each other ’s backs and helped each other out , " DeSilva say , " especially when they were in grave situations . "
Ahealed bone fractureseen inKadanuumuuprovides grounds that these primate cared for one another . Around 3.6 million years ago , this male australopithecine broke his lower leg . By the clip he died , though , the break was fully healed .
" On that landscape with that many predators , no Dr. , no hospitals , no casts , no crutches , how in the macrocosm do you survive if not for social aid ? " DeSilva said . " It ’s really strong grounds that they did n’t pass on each other for dead . "
Lucy’s last day
Lucy probably begin her last day much like any other , awake up from the treetopnest made of branch and leaveswhere she slumber , along with her chemical group , before setting off to find food .
It ’s not clear whether she would have been alone or in a group when she left to forage ; if she did have a baby , she may have carried it .
But there ’s no doubt that she would have spent a important part of her day look for food . She most likely eat up a few staple fiber , such asgrasses , roots and insects , chemical elements in her tooth enamel show . She may have happened upon theeggsof birds or turtle and pronto gobbled them up as tasty , protein - rich treats . And if she was lucky enough to come across a carcass of a large mammalian , such as an antelope , that had n’t been pick clean , she and her troop mates may have pull theflesh from the bone , using prominent rocks .
" They ca n’t afford to be picky eaters as these slow bipeds in a dangerous environment , " DeSilva said . " They ’re eat everything they can get their hands on . "
However , there ’s no evidence that Lucy ’s species used fire to manipulate any of their solid food .
Death at the water’s edge
In the past 50 years , we ’ve create a picture of Lucy ’s last moments . It ’s not clear exactly why she was by the lake ; possibly she was hungry , or perhaps it was a great berth to look for nutrient .
But there are two main theories for how she died .
" Perhaps she was down there at the weewee and — clap ! — a crocodile get out , " Johanson said . " Crocodiles are unbelievably fast , and it ’s a unsafe place if you ’re a little animal " like Lucy .
Johanson found onecarnivore tooth markon Lucy ’s pelvis , and it had not healed , meaning it occurred around the metre of her death . Although the creature that made the stain has not been conclusively identified , " we sleep with that australopithecine were preyed upon because there are a number of examples , " Johanson enounce .
In 2016 , Kappelman and his colleagues put forward analternate endingfor Lucy : a catastrophic fall from a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .
ground on high - solving CT scans and3D reconstructionsof Lucy ’s skeleton , Kappelman identify fractures in her correct shoulder joint , ribs and knees that were unlike the distinctive fracturing that come in fossils oppress under the weight of dirt and rocks for billion of yr .
" Something traumatic happened here during life , " Kappelman sound out .
The kinds of cracking Lucy hurt are reproducible with a dip from a considerable height , perhaps from a magniloquent tree in which she was foraging for food .
I like to think all fossils are moderately especial , but there ’s nothing like Lucy .
" She run into on her feet and then her hands , which signify she was conscious when she hit the ground , " Kappelman said . " I do n’t recall she last very long . "
It ’s not clear whether she was alone when she drop dead . But even if she was with others of her kind , they likely would n’t have done much with her trunk .
There ’s no evidence thatA.afarensis"bodies were treated any differently than any other animal , " DeSilva said . " possibly there was some curiosity around it , and then they carried on . "
Primate researchers havedocumentedother metal money ' curiosity about inanimate body . For example , chimpanzee often care for the body for a few hour or days after death , sometimes guarding the body .
Lucy ’s group may have done the same for her until her body was by nature buried , which would have happened quite rapidly , perhaps by a flood ormudslide .
In the death , though , " we know very little about how any of these creatures died , " Johanson said .
Lucy lives on
Thanks to Johanson ’s 1974 discovery of Lucy — as well as other important findings , like the " First Family " and thefootprints at Laetoliin Tanzania — we now know quite a lot aboutA. afarensis .
" It was a highly successful specie that was comfortable in lots of different habitats , " Johanson said;A. afarensisfossils have been found in Kenya in addition to Ethiopia and Tanzania . " From an evolutionary perspective , her specie was highly adaptable , " he said .
Lucy has had a broad impact on the field of force of anthropology .
" The find of Lucy really strike the start button for looking in old and previous sediments in Africa , " Kappelman order . As a upshot , we have establish numerous ancient hominin species and now have 50 years ' worth of fossil evidence that human phylogenesis was mussy and complex .
Lucy was the only human root discovered at Hadar . But a duo dozen mi away at Woranso - Mille , a palaeontological website in Ethiopia , Yohannes Haile - Selassie , conductor of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University , and his colleagueshave foundevidence of a strange land inhabited by multiple humanlike species between 3.8 million and 3.3 million years ago . For instance , Lucy ’s kind coexist alongside another ancient relative , A. anamensis .
— Ancient human ancestor Lucy was not alone — she lived alongside at least 4 other proto - human coinage , issue inquiry suggests
— Our ancestor Lucy may have used instrument more than 3 million yr ago
— Human root ' Lucy ' gets a Modern face in stunning reconstruction
Would they have been friend , foe , competitors or something in between ? the right way now , anthropologist still have little idea what this landscape painting stream with ancient hominins would have looked like .
But perhaps 50 years from now , we ’ll have a better picture of how Lucy ’s kind interacted with these other ancient hominins . Even then , Lucy will likely remain one of the most famous fossil of all time .
" I like to think all fossils are pretty extra , " DeSilva said , " but there ’s nothing like Lucy . "
