Google Celebrates 41st Anniversary of The Discovery of Lucy Tuesday Nov 24,2015

 

Google is celebrating 41st Anniversary of the discovery of Lucy by posting the doodle on its homepage showing the evolution of bipedalism with a simple version of the March of Progress, the common sketch of human evolution.

The name Lucy, was given to a set of fossilised bones that once constituted the hominid skeleton from the Australopithecus afarensis species, who was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopa by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson.

After assessing skeleton's pelvic structure, it was found that it was female, and called it "Lucy" after the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles. Lucy gained public attention and became household name after the public announcement of the discovery.

Though Lucy had several features of chimpanzees, like long arms and a bloated belly, the skeleton showed that she mainly walked straight, the earliest example of such a primate.

Lucy's species, called as Australopithecus afarensis, is believed to have lived 3 million years ago, and is the closest primate to the Homo genus.

Her skeleton suggests that she was around 3' 3 tall, and weighed around 60 pounds.

The cause of Lucy's death is unknown, but it is believed that she was a mature but young adult when she died.