Which fossil hominin, discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, is famously known as Lucy?

The fossil hominin known as Lucy belongs to the species Australopithecus afarensis.

Researchers discovered Lucy in Ethiopia’s Afar Triangle in 1974. Her skeleton is about 40% complete, making it one of the most famous early hominin fossils. Scientists date her remains to approximately 3.2 million years ago.

Lucy’s anatomy combined a small brain and relatively long arms with pelvic and leg features associated with upright walking. This mixture helped show that habitual bipedalism evolved before the large brains characteristic of later Homo species.

Lucy was named after the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” which researchers played during the expedition. She is not the oldest hominin fossil ever found, and her species was not a direct certainty as the sole ancestor of modern humans. Instead, Australopithecus afarensis represents one important branch of the human evolutionary record.