Lucy (Australopithecus)

Lucy or AL 288-1 is the fossilized skeletal remains of several hundred pieces of bone fossils representing 40% of the skeleton of a female of the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis. In Ethiopia, the collection is also known as Dinkinesh, which means “you are marvelous” in the Amharic language.

Lucy was discovered in 1974 near the village Hadar in the Awash Valley of the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia. The Lucy specimen is an early australopithecine and is dated to about 3.2 million years ago. The skeleton presents a small skull akin to that of non-hominin apes, plus evidence of a walking-gait that was bipedal and upright.

“Lucy” acquired her name from the song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” by The Beatles, which was played loudly and repeatedly in the expedition camp all evening after the excavation team’s first day of work on the recovery site. Due to the risks of damage to the unique fossils, museums preferred to display casts of the fossil assembly. The original fossils are in Ethiopia all current exhibitions used casts.

Lucy (Australopithecus)

Title: Lucy (Australopithecus)
Dated to: 3.2 million years ago
Discovered: Afar Depression, Ethiopia
Date discovered: 1974
Museum: National Museum of Ethiopia
City: Addis Ababa

A Tour of the National Museum of Ethiopia

Throne of Emperor Haile Selassie
Ethiopian Crown
Selam (Australopithecus)
Lucy (Australopithecus)

A Tour of African Museums

Egypt
- Egyptian Museum
South Africa
- Cape Town
  - Iziko South African National Gallery
Ethiopia
- Addis Ababa
  - National Museum of Ethiopia

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“He who knows much does not speak much.”
– Ethiopian Proverb

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Photo Credits: 1)By Philip Kromer from Austin, TX (Lucy – Addis National Museum) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commonss | Content sourced from Wikipedia,

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