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Lucy
Lucy
Catalog numberAL 288-1
Common nameLucy
SpeciesAustralopithecus afarensis
Age3. Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct Hominid which lived between 3 2 million years
Place discoveredAfar Depression, Ethiopia
Date discoveredNovember 24, 1974
Discovered byJohanson and Gray[1]

Lucy (also given a second (Amharic) name: dinqineš, or “Dinkenesh,” meaning “You are beautiful” or "you are wonderful"[2]) is the common name of AL 288-1, the 40% complete Australopithecus afarensis skeleton discovered on November 24, 1974 by the International Afar Research Expedition (IARE; director: Maurice Taieb, co-directors: Donald Johanson and Yves Coppens) in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression. The Afar Depression (also called the Danakil Depression or the Afar Triangle) is a Geological depression in the Horn of Africa, where it NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943 in Chicago) is an American paleoanthropologist. Amharic (አማርኛ amarəñña) is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara. Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct Hominid which lived between 3 Events 380 - Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. Dr Maurice Taieb, (born 1935 is a Tunisian born French Geologist and Paleoanthropologist who discovered the Hadar formation recognised Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943 in Chicago) is an American paleoanthropologist. Yves Coppens (born 1934) is a French anthropologist. He has studied ancient hominids and has had multiple published works on this topic and has also The Awash (sometimes spelled Hawash) is a major river of Ethiopia. NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page The Afar Depression (also called the Danakil Depression or the Afar Triangle) is a Geological depression in the Horn of Africa, where it Lucy is estimated to have lived 3. 2 million years ago.

Contents

Discovery

French geologist Maurice Taieb discovered the Hadar Formation in 1972. Dr Maurice Taieb, (born 1935 is a Tunisian born French Geologist and Paleoanthropologist who discovered the Hadar formation recognised Hadar (also spelled Adda Da'ar; Afar "treaty stream " is a village in Ethiopia, on the southern edge of the Afar Triangle with a He then formed the IARE, inviting Donald Johanson, an American anthropologist now head of the Institute of Human Origins of Arizona State University, and Yves Coppens, a French born paleontologist now based at the Collège de France to co-direct the research. Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943 in Chicago) is an American paleoanthropologist. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Arizona State University ( ASU) is the largest public Research university in the United States under a single administration with total student Yves Coppens (born 1934) is a French anthropologist. He has studied ancient hominids and has had multiple published works on this topic and has also Palaeontology redirects here For the Scientific journal, see Palaeontology (journal. The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment ( Grand établissement) located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement An expedition was formed with four American and seven French participants, and in the autumn of 1973 the team surveyed Hadar, Ethiopia for fossils and artifacts related to the origin of humans. Hadar (also spelled Adda Da'ar; Afar "treaty stream " is a village in Ethiopia, on the southern edge of the Afar Triangle with a FOSSIL is a standard protocol for allowing serial communication for Telecommunications programs under the DOS Operating system. [3]

In November 1973, near the end of the first field season, Johanson noticed a fossil of the upper end of a shinbone, which had been sliced slightly on the front. The lower end of a thighbone was found near to it, and when he fitted them together the angle of the knee joint clearly showed that this fossil, reference AL 129-1, was an upright walking hominid. AL 129-1 is the fossilized knee joint of the species Australopithecus afarensis. A hominid is any member of the biological family Hominidae (the "great apes" including the extinct and extant Humans Chimpanzees Over three million years old, the fossil was much older than any others known at the time. The site lay about two and a half kilometres from the site at which they subsequently found "Lucy". [4][5]

The team returned for the second field season in the following year and found hominid jaws. Then, on the morning of November 24, 1974,[2] near the Awash River, Johanson abandoned a plan to update his field notes and joined graduate student, Tom Gray from Texas State, in taking their Land Rover to Locality 162 to search for bone fossils. Events 380 - Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. The Awash (sometimes spelled Hawash) is a major river of Ethiopia. Land Rover is an all-terrain vehicle and Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV manufacturer based in Solihull, England, now operated as part of the Jaguar [6]

Both Johanson and Gray spent a couple of hours on the increasingly hot arid plains, surveying the dusty terrain, then Johanson decided on a hunch to make a small detour on their way back to the Land Rover to look at the bottom of a small gulley that had been checked at least twice before by other workers. At first sight there was virtually no bone in the gulley, but as they turned to leave, a fossil caught Gray's eye; an arm bone fragment lying on the slope. Near it lay a fragment from the back of a small skull. As they looked further, they found more and more bones, including part of a thighbone, vertebrae, part of a pelvis indicating that the fossil was female, ribs, and pieces of jaw. They marked the spot and returned to camp, excited at finding so many pieces apparently from one individual hominid. [1][7]

In the afternoon, everyone on the expedition was at the gully, sectioning off the site and preparing for careful collection which eventually took three weeks. That first evening they celebrated at the camp, staying up all night, and at some stage during the evening the fossil AL 288-1 was nicknamed Lucy, after the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", which was being played loudly and repeatedly on a tape recorder in the camp. The Beatles were a pop and rock band from Liverpool, England formed in 1960 Disambiguation Lucy in the Sky redirects here For the heroine of this name see Karolina Dean. [8]

Over the three weeks, several hundred pieces or fragments of bone were found, with no duplication, confirming their original speculation that they were from the one skeleton. As the team analyzed the fossil further, they calculated that an amazing 40% of a hominin skeleton had been recovered, an astounding accomplishment in the world of anthropology. Usually, only fossil fragments are discovered; rarely are skulls or ribs found intact. Johanson considered it was female based on the one complete pelvic bone and sacrum indicating the width of the pelvic opening. Female (♀ is the Sex of an Organism, or a part of an organism which produces ova (egg cells [9] Lucy was only 1. 1 m (3 feet 8 inches) tall, weighed 29 kilograms (65 lb) and looked somewhat like a Common Chimpanzee, but although the creature had a small brain, the pelvis and leg bones were almost identical in function with those of modern humans, showing with certainty that these hominids had walked erect. The Common Chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes) also known as the Robust Chimpanzee, is a great ape. [10]

Johanson and his colleague Tim White, a Californian born paleoanthropologist, placed Australopithecus afarensis as the last ancestor common to humans and chimpanzees living from 3. Tim White may refer to Tim White (anthropologist (born 1950 American paleoanthropologist Tim White (reporter, American news anchor Paleoanthropology, which combines the disciplines of Paleontology and Physical anthropology, is the study of ancient humans as found in Fossil hominid 9 to 3 million years ago. Although fossils closer to the chimpanzee/human common ancestor have been recovered since the early 1970s, Lucy remains a treasure among anthropologists studying human origins. The fragmentary nature of the older fossils furthermore deter confident conclusions as to the degree of bipedality or their relation to true hominines.

Johanson brought the skeleton back to Cleveland, under an agreement with the government of Ethiopia, and returned it according to agreement some 9 years later. Cleveland is a City in the US state of Ohio and the County seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state Lucy as a fossil hominin significantly captured public notice, becoming almost a household name at the time.

Currently, the prevailing opinion is that the Lucy skeleton should be classified in the species Australopithecus afarensis. Lucy is preserved at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The National Museum of Ethiopia (sometimes also referred to as the Ethiopian National Museum) is the primary museum in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa (sometimes spelled Addis Abeba, the spelling used by the official Ethiopian Mapping Authority Amharic A plaster replica is displayed instead of the original skeleton. A cast of the original skeleton in its reconstructed form remains on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History[11]. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a Natural history Museum located approximately five miles (8 km east of downtown Cleveland Ohio in A diorama of Australopithecus afarensis and other human predecessors showing each species in its habitat and demonstrating the behaviors and capabilities that scientists believe it had is displayed in the Hall of Human Biology and Evolution at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The American Museum of Natural History ( AMNH) located on the Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York, USA is one of the largest and most The American Museum of Natural History ( AMNH) located on the Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York, USA is one of the largest and most The City of New York

Further discoveries of afarensis specimens occurred during the 1970s giving anthropologists a much better appreciation of the range of variability and sexual dimorphism of the species.

Notable characteristics

Full reconstruction of Lucy on display at Museum of Man, San Diego, California.
Full reconstruction of Lucy on display at Museum of Man, San Diego, California.

Postcranial

One of the most striking characteristics possessed by Lucy was a valgus knee, which indicated that she normally moved by walking upright. Genu valgum, commonly called " knock-knees " is a condition where the Knees angle in and touch one another when the legs are straightened Bipedalism is a form of Terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs Her femoral head was small and her femoral neck was short, both primitive characteristics. The femur is the thigh bone In Humans, it is the longest, most voluminous and strongest Bone. Her greater trochanter, however, was clearly derived, being short and human like rather than taller than the femoral head. The greater trochanter (great trochanter of the Femur is a large irregular quadrilateral eminence The length ratio of her humerus to femur was 84. The humerus is a Long bone in the Arm or Forelimb that runs from the Shoulder to the Elbow. The femur is the thigh bone In Humans, it is the longest, most voluminous and strongest Bone. 6% compared to 71. 8% for modern humans and 97. 8% for common chimpanzees, indicating that either the arms of A. afarensis were beginning to shorten, the legs were beginning to lengthen, or that both were occurring simultaneously. Lucy also possessed a lumbar curve, another indicator of habitual bipedalism. The lumbar vertebrae are the largest segments of the movable part of the Vertebral column, and are characterized by the absence of the Foramen transversarium within

Pelvic girdle

Johanson was able to recover Lucy's left innominate bone and sacrum. The hip bone, innominate bone or coxal bone is a large flattened irregularly shaped bone constricted in the center and expanded above and below The sacrum is a large triangular bone at the base of the spine and at the upper and back part of the Pelvic cavity, where it is inserted like a wedge between Though the sacrum was remarkably well preserved, the innominate was distorted, leading to two different reconstructions. The first reconstruction had little iliac flare and virtually no anterior wrap, creating an ilium that greatly resembled that of an ape. The ilium of the Pelvis is divisible into two parts the body and the ala the separation is indicated on the top surface by a curved line the arcuate line and on the However, this reconstruction proved to be faulty, as the superior pubic rami would not have been able to connect if the right ilium was identical to the left. The superior pubic ramus extends from the body to the median plane where it articulates with its fellow of the opposite side A later reconstruction by Tim White showed a broad iliac flare and a definite anterior wrap, indicating that Lucy had an unusually broad inner acetabular distance and unusually long superior pubic rami. Tim White (born August 24 1950 in Los Angeles California is an American Paleoanthropologist and Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California Berkeley The acetabulum is a concave surface of the Pelvis. The head of the femur meets with the pelvis at the acetabulum forming the hip Joint Her pubic arch was over 90 degrees, similar to modern human females. The eminences of the lower circumference of the True pelvis are separated by three notches one in front the pubic arch, formed by the convergence of the Inferior rami Her acetabulum, however, was small and primitive, like that of a chimpanzee. The acetabulum is a concave surface of the Pelvis. The head of the femur meets with the pelvis at the acetabulum forming the hip Joint

Cranial specimens

The cranial evidence recovered from Lucy are far less derived than her postcranium. Her neurocranium is small and primitive, while she possesses more spatulate canines than apes. "Cuspid" redirects here For the heart valves see Bicuspid valve and Tricuspid valve.

This was due to the earlier belief (1950-1970's) that increasing brain size of apes was the trigger for evolving towards humans. Human evolution, or anthropogenesis, is the part of biological Evolution concerning the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct Species Before Lucy, a fossil called '1470' (Homo rudolfensis) with a brain capacity of about 800 cubic centimetres had been discovered, an ape with a bigger brain. Homo rudolfensis is a Fossil Hominin Species discovered by Bernard Ngeneo, a member of a team led by anthropologist Richard Homo rudolfensis is a Fossil Hominin Species discovered by Bernard Ngeneo, a member of a team led by anthropologist Richard Cranial capacity is a measure of the volume of the interior of the Cranium (also called the braincase or brainpan of those Vertebrates who have both a cranium and A cubic centimetre or cubic centimeter (symbol cm3 —the abbreviation cc, though widely used is deprecated is a commonly used unit of Volume If the older theory was correct, humans most likely evolved from the latter. However, it turned out Lucy was the older fossil, yet Lucy was bipedal (walked upright) and had a brain of only around 375 to 500 cc. These facts provided a basis to challenge the older views.

US tour

A six-year exhibition tour of the United States, titled Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia features the Lucy fossil as well as over 100 artifacts from ancient times to the present, is currently underway. The tour was approved by the Ethiopian government and organized in collaboration with the Houston Museum of Natural Science, where it was on display from August 31, 2007 to April 27, 2008. The Houston Museum of Natural Science is a Science museum located on the northern border of Hermann Park in Houston, Texas, USA. Events 1056 - Byzantine Empress Theodora becomes ill dying suddenly a few days later without children to succeed the Throne Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1124 - David I becomes King of Scotland. 1296 - Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common [12] An undisclosed proportion of the proceeds from the tour is to go toward modernizing Ethiopia's museums. [13] The U. S. Department of State also approved the tour. There was controversy in advance of the tour over concerns about the fragility of the specimens, with various experts including paleoanthropologist Owen Lovejoy and anthroplogist and conservationist Richard Leakey publicly stating their opposition. Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (born 19 December 1944 in Nairobi, Kenya) is a Kenyan politician The Smithsonian Institution was amongst museums declining to host the exhibits. The Smithsonian Institution (smɪθsoʊnɪən is an educational and research institute and associated Museum complex administered and funded by the Government of [14] The fossil's discoverer Don Johanson stated that although he was somewhat uneasy about the possibility of damage, he did not oppose exhibiting Lucy as it will help to raise awareness of human-origins studies. The museum is making arrangements for the exhibits to be shown at as many as ten other museums. [13]

References

  1. ^ a b Instutute of Human Origins. Retrieved on 2007-08-30. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1363 - Beginning date of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders— Chen Youliang and
  2. ^ a b Lucy's legacy: Discovering our most famous ancestor. The Houston Museum of Natural Science. Retrieved on 2007-09-10. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 506 - The Bishops of Visigothic Gaul meet in the Council of Agde.
  3. ^ Johanson 1981, p.  154-158
  4. ^ Letter from Donald Johanson, August 8, 1989 Lucy's Knee Joint
  5. ^ Johanson 1981, p.  159-163
  6. ^ Johanson 1981, p.  18 (Note that the book shows the discovery date as November 30, 1974)
  7. ^ Johanson 1981, p. Events 1700 - Battle of Narva — A Swedish army of 8500 men under Charles XII defeats Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar.  20-21
  8. ^ Johanson 1981, p.  22
  9. ^ Johanson 1981, p.  22
  10. ^ Johanson 1981, p.  20-22, 184-185
  11. ^ "Permanent Exhibits. " www. cmnh. org. 3 January, 2007.
  12. ^ Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia. Houston Museum of Natural Science (2008). Retrieved on 2008-04-18. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1025 - Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland.
  13. ^ a b Jim Kennett (August 31, 2007). Bloomberg.com: Canada. Lucy's Ancient Bones Visit Houston Museum as Scientists Fret. Retrieved on 2007-09-11. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 9 - The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends 506 - The Bishops of Visigothic Gaul
  14. ^ Stefan Lovgren (November 1, 2006). "Lucy" Fossil Tour Sparks Controversy Among U.S. Museums. National Geographic News. Retrieved on 2007-09-11. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 9 - The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends 506 - The Bishops of Visigothic Gaul

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