On Tuesday, the Google Doodle honoured the 41st anniversary of the discovery of Lucy.
But who’s Lucy? Lucy is the name given to a collection of fossilised bones that once made up the skeleton of a hominid (characterised family Hominidae, which includes Homo sapiens as well as an extinct species of man-like creatures) from the Australopithecus afarensis species . This species lived in Ethiopia 3.2 million years ago.
Source: Google homepage
She was first discovered in 1973 and almost 40 percent of her bones were found intact.
Lucy’s skeleton is presently in the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa in a specially constructed safe, not far from where the fossilised bones were found. People are allowed to see a replica of her bones.
Here are a few things you should know about her:
She was named Lucy after The Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds since palaeontologist Donald Johanson was listening to it after he got back to the campsite with the bones, says National Geographic .
Lucy had a vertical posture
Unlike other apes, Lucy could maintain a vertical posture. Researchers say, she spent most of her time walking on two legs, a characteristic human trait, says Philosophical Transactions .
Her death is still a mystery.
No teeth marks were found on her skeleton which indicates she may not have been attacked by another animal, says the Institute of Human Origins . However, they have been unable to offer any cause for her death presently.
She was not very tall.
Although the Australopithecus afarensis may have walked erect, they were not very tall. They were much shorter than the humans of today. Lucy was only three-and-a-half feet tall and weighed 29 kg, says the Institute of Human Origin . It was her height that gave an indication of her gender as well.