AL 288-1, commonly known as Lucy or Dinkʼinesh (Amharic: ድንቅ ነሽ, lit. 'you are marvellous'), is a collection of several hundred pieces of fossilized bone comprising 40 percent of the skeleton of a female of the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis.

Lucy was found by Donald Johanson and Tom Gray on November 24, 1974, at the site of Hadar in Ethiopia. They had taken a Land Rover out that day to map in another locality. After a long, hot morning of mapping and surveying for fossils, they decided to head back to the vehicle.

Lucy, nickname for a remarkably complete (40 percent intact) hominin skeleton found by American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson at at the fossil site Hadar in Ethiopia on Nov. 24, 1974, and dated to 3.2 million years ago.

Australopithecus afarensis is one of the best-known early hominins thanks to an extraordinary skeleton known as Lucy. Find out what we've learned about this species and important fossils. How do we know that Lucy and her species walked upright? How do we know Lucy was female? How did she die?

Nov 11, 2024 · The 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton known as Lucy is the most famous fossil in the world.

"Lucy" is one of the most complete skeletons found to date from the early hominids that flourished between 4 and 2 million years ago. The skeleton consists of bones from a single individual, presumably female, who stood well under 4 feet tall.

Oct 15, 2024 · With the discovery of Lucy, scientists were forced to reconsider key details of the human story, from when and where humanity got its start to how the various extinct members of the human family...

Jun 13, 2023 · The rare fossil, representing 40% of a skeleton belonging to a female Australopithecus afarensis, was named “Lucy,” for the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.”

Nov 14, 2024 · With Johanson's discovery of “Lucy”—as the fossilized skeleton became known—scientists were forced to rewrite the human evolutionary timeline. This was an ancestor with a mix of humanlike and...

Lucy is arguably the most famous of all early human individuals due to her age and relative completeness. Partial skeletons like hers allow us to learn much more about early human body size, shape, and locomotion than more fragmentary and sparse remains.