www.washingtonpost.com
Open in
urlscan Pro
23.37.45.67
Public Scan
URL:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/interactive/2024/evolution-fossil-lucy-human-ancestor/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_med...
Submission: On November 22 via api from BE — Scanned from DE
Submission: On November 22 via api from BE — Scanned from DE
Form analysis 1 forms found in the DOM
<form class="w-100 left" id="registration-form" data-qa="regwall-registration-form-container" novalidate="">
<div>
<div data-testid="input-text-container" class="wpds-c-jwIEZH wpds-c-jwIEZH-iPJLV-css">
<div class="wpds-c-cgcUHx"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 16 16" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false" role="img" class="wpds-c-fBqPWp ">
<path d="M1 3v10h14V3Zm12.19 1L8 8.32 2.81 4ZM2 12V4.63l6 5 6-5V12Z"></path>
</svg></div>
<div class="wpds-c-iQOSPq"><span role="label" id="radix-:r0:" class="wpds-c-bROtJV wpds-c-iJWmNK">Enter email address</span><input id="registration-email-id" type="email" aria-invalid="false" name="registration-email"
data-qa="regwall-registration-form-email-input" data-private="true" class="wpds-c-djFMBQ wpds-c-djFMBQ-iPJLV-css" value="" aria-labelledby="radix-:r0:"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="dn">
<div class="db mt-xs mb-xs "><span role="label" id="radix-:r1:" class="wpds-c-bROtJV"><span class="db font-xxxs gray-darker pt-xxs pb-xxs gray-dark" style="padding-top: 1px;"><span>By selecting "Start reading," you agree to The Washington Post's
<a target="_blank" style="color:inherit;" class="underline" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/information/2022/01/01/terms-of-service/">Terms of Service</a> and
<a target="_blank" style="color:inherit;" class="underline" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/privacy-policy/">Privacy Policy</a>.</span></span></span>
<div class="db gray-dark relative flex pt-xxs pb-xxs items-start gray-darker"><span role="label" id="radix-:r2:" class="wpds-c-bROtJV wpds-c-jDXwHV"><button type="button" role="checkbox" aria-checked="false" data-state="unchecked" value="on"
id="mcCheckbox" data-testid="mcCheckbox" class="wpds-c-gDyjhx wpds-c-gDyjhx-bnVAXI-size-125 wpds-c-gDyjhx-kFjMjo-cv wpds-c-gDyjhx-ikKWKCv-css" aria-labelledby="radix-:r2:"></button><input type="checkbox" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"
value="on" style="transform: translateX(-100%); position: absolute; pointer-events: none; opacity: 0; margin: 0px; width: 0px; height: 0px;"><span class="wpds-c-bFeFXz"><span class="relative db gray-darker" style="padding-top: 2px;"><span
class="relative db font-xxxs" style="padding-top: 1px;"><span>The Washington Post may use my email address to provide me occasional special offers via email and through other platforms. I can opt out at any
time.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="subs-turnstile-hook" data-test-id="regform" class="wpds-c-eerOeF center"></div><button data-qa="regwall-registration-form-cta-button" type="submit"
class="wpds-c-kSOqLF wpds-c-kSOqLF-hDKJFr-variant-cta wpds-c-kSOqLF-eHdizY-density-default wpds-c-kSOqLF-ejCoEP-icon-left wpds-c-kSOqLF-ikFyhzm-css w-100 mt-sm"><span>Start reading</span></button>
</form>Text Content
5.31.1 Accessibility statementSkip to main content Democracy Dies in Darkness SubscribeSign in ScienceSpace Animals Health Environment LUCY’S LEGACY A collection of 3-million-year-old bones unearthed 50 years ago in Ethiopia changed our understanding of human origins. A.L.288-1 This humerus is definitely hominid ... Hominid madness has hit again, totally disorienting everything. Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience. By Carolyn Y. Johnson , Manuel Canales , William Neff and Carson TerBush November 22, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EST 5 min 102 Sorry, a summary is not available for this article at this time. Please try again later. Fifty years ago, our understanding of human origins began to change with the discovery of Lucy, a remarkably complete, 3.2-million-year-old human relative unearthed from the sandy soil in Hadar, Ethiopia. Lucy, formally known as A.L. 288-1, was about as tall as a kindergartner, with a body that blended features of apes and humans. Her Ethiopian name is Dinkinesh, which means “you are marvelous” in Amharic. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Understanding of human origins was still nascent in the 1970s. Fossils of hominins — the group that includes modern humans and our close ancestors — had been dated to 1.8 million years ago at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. A 2.5-million-year-old fossil of a hominin species called Australopithecus africanus had been discovered in South Africa. Lucy’s discovery on Nov. 24, 1974, by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, pushed things back nearly a million years, a major leap in scientific knowledge that still resonates a half-century later. WHY LUCY DREW FAME Many ancient human ancestors are known from fragments. But about 40 percent of Lucy’s skeleton was recovered, an extraordinary amount for a fossil of this age, which gave the public a way to imagine a shared human ancestor. Brain Lucy’s species had a small, apelike brain, about 20 percent larger than a chimpanzee’s 1/4 Pelvis Broader hips than a chimp, with an upper portion called the illium similar to a human 2/4 Femur A thigh bone angled from the knee to the hip joint, a sign that Lucy walked upright 3/4 Humerus Lucy’s upper arm bone, the humerus, was longer relative to her thigh bone compared with modern humans, suggesting apelike ancestry 4/4 Lucy was identified as a member of a new species called Australopithecus afarensis. The debate over whether she was our ancestor, a grandmother to humanity and the missing link between apes and humans began instantaneously. Debates over human evolution weren’t confined to the pages of esoteric scientific journals at the time — Johanson and fellow paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey sparred over their differing views in a televised debate hosted by Walter Cronkite in 1981. Lucy quickly became a celebrity of the fossil record. A reconstructed skeleton of Lucy is displayed next to Grace Latimer, 4, to illustrate Lucy's small stature and brain size. (Cleveland Museum of Natural History) THE SEARCH FOR HUMAN ANCESTORS As a kid growing up in Connecticut, Johanson got a book from a neighbor that planted an electrifying idea: “Someday, a fossil would be found of a human more apelike, or an ape more humanlike than had been found by anyone,” recalled Johanson, now a paleoanthropologist at Arizona State University. From that moment, Johanson dreamed of going to Africa to search for this ancient connection, and in 1970 he began working there. In 1973, he discovered a knee joint from an unknown hominin species in Hadar. An orthopedic surgeon took one look and said there was no doubt that creature walked upright. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement A year later, Johanson and graduate student Tom Gray were returning to camp when Johanson looked over his right shoulder and a piece of bone caught his eye. It was a piece of Lucy’s elbow — his childhood dream, at his feet. During the celebrations, the team played a Beatles tape and she was named for the song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” The diminutive skeleton was remarkably complete, allowing scientists to understand how her body was built. Hadar locator map Red Sea ERITREA SUDAN Gulf of Aden Hadar SOMALIA Addis Ababa ETHIOPIA SOUTH SUDAN UGANDA KENYA Indian Ocean 100 MILES Red Sea ERITREA SUDAN Gulf of Aden Hadar SOMALIA Addis Ababa ETHIOPIA SOUTH SUDAN UGANDA KENYA Indian Ocean 100 MILES Red Sea ERITREA SUDAN Gulf of Aden Hadar DJIBOUTI Addis Ababa SOMALIA ETHIOPIA SOUTH SUDAN Indian Ocean UGANDA KENYA 100 MILES Red Sea ERITREA SUDAN Gulf of Aden Hadar DJIBOUTI Addis Ababa SOMALIA ETHIOPIA SOUTH SUDAN Indian Ocean UGANDA KENYA 100 MILES Donald Johanson at an excavation site in 1975. (David Brill/Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University) The Hadar research team in Ethiopia in 1974. (Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University) It also helped deconstruct the notion that humanlike traits had come on in concert — that a big brain had helped enable tool use, which required human ancestors to start walking upright so they could use their hands. Lucy had a small brain but was adapted to walking on two legs. We now know that even more ancient hominins were bipedal, tracing back to at least 6 million years ago, when Orrorin tugenensis or Sahelanthropus tchadensis may have walked on two legs. WALKING ON TWO FEET Today, we see only our species of humans — Homo sapiens — and often wonder if our abilities and features are unique. Lucy’s body had similarities to apes and to modern-day humans. Lucy connection Chimpanzees’ connection Homo sapiens’ connection Chimpanzees’ arms are longer than their hind limbs with long, curved fingers adapted for climbing in trees. Lucy’s arms were long relative to her legs, but her pelvis and knees were well-adapted for walking upright. Humans’ pelvises, knees and feet are similar to Lucy’s. So is the way the spinal column enters the skull. Chimpanzees’ connection Homo sapiens’ connection Chimpanzees’ arms are longer than their hind limbs with long, curved fingers adapted for climbing in trees. Lucy’s arms were long relative to her legs, but her pelvis and knees were well-adapted for walking upright. Humans’ pelvises, knees and feet are similar to Lucy’s. So is the way the spinal column enters the skull. Chimpanzees’ connection Homo sapiens’ connection Chimpanzees’ arms are longer than their hind limbs with long, curved fingers adapted for climbing in trees. Lucy’s arms were long relative to her legs, but her pelvis and knees were well-adapted for walking upright. Humans’ pelvises, knees and feet are similar to Lucy’s. So is the way the spinal column enters the skull. Chimpanzees’ connection Homo sapiens’ connection Chimpanzees’ arms are longer than their hind limbs with long, curved fingers adapted for climbing in trees. Lucy’s arms were long relative to her legs, but her pelvis and knees were well-adapted for walking upright. Humans’ pelvises, knees and feet are similar to Lucy’s. So is the way the spinal column enters the skull. Her pelvis was remarkably similar to the human version, clearly adapted for upright walking. “If she walked down the street, you wouldn’t notice anything about her, except she is about 3½ feet tall,” said C. Owen Lovejoy, a distinguished professor of human evolutionary studies at Kent State University. Scientists debate what Lucy’s body tells us about how she lived. Some believe that with long, strong arms and curved fingers, she still spent significant time in trees — and may have even died when she tumbled out of one. Others, including Johanson, disagree with that interpretation. A BUSHY HOMININ FAMILY TREE Not so long ago, new discoveries of ancient human fossil relatives might have been slotted into their spot in a tidy, linear timeline of human evolution, “a heroic and single-minded struggle from primitiveness to perfection,” in the words of paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall. Lucy helped change that. Hominid evolution timeline Genus Individual species Homo sapiens Today Homo neanderthalensis 1 million years ago Homo erectus PARANTHROPUS GROUP HOMO GROUP Paranthropus boisei Homo habilis 2 Australopithecus garhi 3 Australopithecus afarensis (“Lucy”) AUSTRALOPITHECUS GROUP 4 5 ARDIPITHECUS GROUP (Uncertain age of earliest fossils) 6 7 An illustration of what Lucy’s species may have looked like. Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University Genus Individual species Homo sapiens Today Homo neanderthalensis 1 million years ago Homo erectus PARANTHROPUS GROUP HOMO GROUP Paranthropus boisei Homo habilis 2 Australopithecus garhi 3 Australopithecus afarensis (“Lucy”) AUSTRALOPITHECUS GROUP 4 5 6 ARDIPITHECUS GROUP (Uncertain age of earliest fossils) 7 An illustration of what Lucy’s species may have looked like. Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University Genus Individual species Homo sapiens 7 million years ago Today 6 million 5 million 4 million 3 million 2 million 1 million Homo habilis Homo erectus HOMO GROUP ARDIPITHECUS GROUP (Uncertain age of earliest fossils) Australopithecus garhi Homo neanderthalensis Paranthropus boisei AUSTRALOPITHECUS GROUP PARANTHROPUS GROUP Australopithecus afarensis (“Lucy”) An illustration of what Lucy’s species may have looked like. Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University Genus Individual species Homo sapiens 7 million years ago Today 6 million 5 million 4 million 3 million 2 million 1 million Homo habilis Homo erectus HOMO GROUP ARDIPITHECUS GROUP (Uncertain age of earliest fossils) Australopithecus garhi Homo neanderthalensis Paranthropus boisei AUSTRALOPITHECUS GROUP PARANTHROPUS GROUP Australopithecus afarensis (“Lucy”) An illustration of what Lucy’s species may have looked like. Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University Today, the map of early human evolution is much more complicated, and Lucy is one of a panoply of human ancestors in a complex and bushy family tree stretching back some 7 million years. Lucy was not the only Australopithecus. Even older than her, Ardipithecus — discovered in 1994 — blended apelike and humanlike characteristics. Side branches like Paranthropus appear in the fossil record, then disappear. “The common conception is that we’re finding the grandmother [of humanity], and we’re never finding that,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “Culturally, these are our ancestors — they are our connection to the past.” Story continues below advertisement Advertisement A half-century later, an increasingly diverse group of scientists are studying and unearthing these ancestors. “The big change, which is so rewarding to all of us, is there are Ethiopian scientists making their own major discoveries,” Johanson said. After a controversial world tour in 2007, Lucy’s fragile bones are kept at home in the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. The big question Lucy raised continues to fascinate scientists and the public across the world today: Where did we come from? Students peer into a glass case housing Lucy's fossilized bones at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa in 2022. (Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images) ABOUT THIS STORY Story editing by Lynh Bui and Kainaz Amaria. Design editing by Christian Font. Photo editing by Sandra M. Stevenson. Copy editing by Sue Doyle. 102 Comments Carolyn Y. JohnsonCarolyn Johnson is a science reporter. She previously covered the business of health and the affordability of health care to consumers. @carolynyjohnson Follow Manuel CanalesManuel Canales is a graphics assignment editor for The Washington Post's enterprise projects. Before joining The Post, he was a senior graphic editor at National Geographic Magazine. Previously he was the editor in chief of digital design and infographics at La Nación, Costa Rica.@canalesgraphics Follow William NeffWilliam Neff creates static and motion graphics and generates original video content for the Washington Post. A veteran graphics reporter and multimedia content producer, he was part of a team at The Post that won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for the series “2C: Beyond the Limit.”@wneff Follow Carson TerBushCarson TerBush is a designer and graphics reporter at The Washington Post.@_carsonology Follow Subscribe to comment and get the full experience. Choose your plan → Company About The Post Newsroom Policies & Standards Diversity & Inclusion Careers Media & Community Relations WP Creative Group Accessibility Statement Sitemap Get The Post Become a Subscriber Gift Subscriptions Mobile & Apps Newsletters & Alerts Washington Post Live Reprints & Permissions Post Store Books & E-Books Today’s Paper Public Notices Contact Us Contact the Newsroom Contact Customer Care Contact the Opinions Team Advertise Licensing & Syndication Request a Correction Send a News Tip Report a Vulnerability Terms of Use Digital Products Terms of Sale Print Products Terms of Sale Terms of Service Privacy Policy Cookie Settings Submissions & Discussion Policy RSS Terms of Service Ad Choices washingtonpost.com © 1996-2024 The Washington Post * washingtonpost.com * © 1996-2024 The Washington Post * About The Post * Contact the Newsroom * Contact Customer Care * Request a Correction * Send a News Tip * Report a Vulnerability * Download the Washington Post App * Policies & Standards * Terms of Service * Privacy Policy * Cookie Settings * Print Products Terms of Sale * Digital Products Terms of Sale * Submissions & Discussion Policy * Sitemap * RSS Terms of Service * Ad Choices Already have an account? Sign in -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TWO WAYS TO READ THIS ARTICLE: Create an account Free * Access this article Enter email address By selecting "Start reading," you agree to The Washington Post's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The Washington Post may use my email address to provide me occasional special offers via email and through other platforms. I can opt out at any time. Start reading SALE Subscribe €0.99every 4 weeks for the first year * Unlimited access to all articles * Save stories to read later Subscribe COOKIE CHOICES FOR EU, SWISS & UK RESIDENTS We and our 93 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting "I Accept" enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under "we and our partners process data to provide," whereas selecting "Reject All" or withdrawing your consent will disable them. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the ["privacy preferences"] link on the bottom of the webpage [or the floating icon on the bottom-left of the webpage, if applicable]. Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy. If you click “I accept,” in addition to processing data using cookies and similar technologies for the purposes to the right, you also agree we may process the profile information you provide and your interactions with our surveys and other interactive content for personalized advertising. If you are an EU, Swiss, or UK resident and you do not accept, we will process cookies and associated data for strictly necessary purposes and process non-cookie data as set forth in our Privacy Policy (consistent with law and, if applicable, other choices you have made). WE AND OUR PARTNERS PROCESS COOKIE DATA TO PROVIDE: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Create profiles for personalised advertising. Use profiles to select personalised advertising. Create profiles to personalise content. Use profiles to select personalised content. Measure advertising performance. Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources. Develop and improve services. Store and/or access information on a device. Use limited data to select content. Use limited data to select advertising. List of Partners (vendors) I Accept Reject All Show Purposes