What extinct mammal genus includes the famous fossil specimen Lucy?

The extinct mammal genus that includes Lucy is Australopithecus. Lucy, formally catalogued as AL 288-1, is a remarkably preserved partial skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis.

Donald Johanson and his colleagues discovered Lucy in 1974 at Hadar in Ethiopia’s Afar Region. The team named her after the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” which was playing at the expedition camp. Her skeleton is about 40 percent complete and dates to roughly 3.2 million years ago.

Lucy’s anatomy provided important evidence that upright walking evolved early in human evolution. Her pelvis, knee, and lower-limb bones indicate habitual bipedalism, while her small brain and several skeletal features remained more apelike than those of later members of the human lineage.

Australopithecus means “southern ape.” The genus includes several extinct species, and its exact relationship to Homo remains a subject of scientific discussion. Lucy was not a member of Homo, nor was she Ardipithecus or Paranthropus; she belongs specifically to A. afarensis.