What is the significance of Lucy (Australopithecus)? Where did the name Lucy come from?

Question

Best answer gets 10 points!

Answer 1

The significance of this specimen (AL 288-1) depends upon who you are and what you want to know about hominids on Earth.  See details below.

The name Lucy for the specimen is usually related as:

[the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” was playing over and over.  At some point during that night no one remembers when or by whom the skeleton was given the name “Lucy.”  The name has stuck.]

Lucy has been differentiated as Australopithecus afarensis.  This means she was a bipedal species (walked on hind legs).  She is thought to be about 3.2 million years old.

The official web site states: "she is unique because over 40% of her skeleton was recovered, making her one of the most complete australopithecine fossils ever found."

Artist renditions are only guess work approximations since her entire spinal column, hands and feet were not found.  The shoulder connections for her arms is also missing.  She may or may not have been covered in hair.

Lucy is direct evidence that something, or perhaps someone, very much like humans walk the Earth over 3 million years ago.  Some people alive today cannot believe this.  Some people are busy looking for additional specimens, perhaps older.

Answer 2

well, i guess kymimom will be getting the 10 points

the only thing i can possibly add to that answer is that lucy is the earliest direct ancestor of humans that has yet to be found

Answer 3

"Lucy", formally know as AL288-1, (cataloged as: "Afar location, find #288-1") is the remains of  an Australopithecus afarenis. ("Southern ape of Afar") She was found in 1974. Don Johanson's team found the remains. Her name came from the fact that the song "Lucy in the Sky" was playing the evening that the team brought the remains in. Lucy was found in the Afar triangle of Ethiopia, near the town of Hadar. She is considered the most complete skeleton found from that time.

By the way, it's interesting how the claim of "most complete" was made.

There are 206 bones in the hominid body. If you count the paired bones (two arms, two legs, etc.) as one, then you have the 120 bones of a "half skeleton." Lucy is described as 20 percent of a whole or 28 percent of a half skeleton. Alan Walker found Nariokome Boy a Homo erectus skeleton. This had 67 bones, 33 percent of a whole and 40 percent of a half skeleton. curious, Walker asked Don Johanson, Lucy's discoverer, how he arrived at her percentages. Johanson stated he had discounted the 106 bones of the hands and feet (they are only rarely found) this gave the percentages that are quoted. By that computation, Nariokome Boy is 66 percent complete.

Lucy stood some 3.5 feet tall and lived 3.0 to 3.5 million years ago. She is the most complete skeleton found from that period. Brain capacity, a suggestive means of determining intelligence, is thought to have been 410cc. The modern human brain averages 1400 cc. The species is thought to have gone extinct some 2.5 million years ago.

What makes Lucy important is that her ability to walk on two feet rather then on four feet or having to use a "knuckle walk." The term for walking on two feet is bipedalisim, and Lucy's remains showed that it was well established. Due to the completeness of the remains, Lucy's overall body proportions could be established. This gave critical information about what the hominids looked like and how early they had adopted walking on two feet. Lucy walked slightly bowlegged and based on the curved toes and pelvis shape, appear to still be spending time in trees. The shape of the pelvis appeared to show that her young would have had an easier time being born. They didn't have to turn and twist as do human children today do.

The term "Australopithecus" means "southern ape." The genus includes, afarenis, boisei, robustus and Prometheus

For more information try

"Making Silent Stones Speak" by Schick and Toth.

"The Field Guide to Early Man" by David Lambert and the Diagram Group.

"The Wisdom of the Bones" by Alan Walker and Pat Shipman

Answer 4

http://answers.scienceontheweb.net

you can get much information in this website,stay a minute in website and check anyone link at a time,you can aslo get your answer in Google Search in this website, which has helped me alot

Answer 5

Lucy was found on the 24th of November, 1974 by Donald Johanson and Tom Gray, at the site of Hadar in Ethiopia.( Africa)

Later in the night of November 24th, there was much celebration and excitement over the discovery of what looked like a fairly complete hominid skeleton.

There was drinking, dancing, and singing; the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” was playing over and over. At some point during that night no one remembers when or by whom the skeleton was given the name “Lucy.” The name has stuck.

Her significance,

comes from the fact that she was the earliest fossil evidence of hominid bipedalism.

Lucy is dated to just less than 3.18 million years old.

As in a modern human’s skeleton, Lucy's bones are rife with evidence clearly pointing to bipedality. Her distal femur shows several traits unique to bipedality.

Her distal femur shows several traits unique to bipedality. The shaft is angled relative to the condyles (knee joint surfaces) which allows bipeds to balance on one leg at a time during locomotion. There is a prominent patellar lip to keep the patella (knee cap) from dislocating due to this angle. Her condyles are large, and are thus adapted to handling the added weight which results from shifting from four limbs to two. The pelvis exhibits a number of adaptations to bipedality. The entire structure has been remodeled to accommodate an upright stance and the need to balance the trunk on only one limb with each stride. The talus, in her ankle, shows evidence for a convergent big toe, sacrificing manipulative abilities for efficiency in bipedal locomotion. The vertebrae show evidence of the spinal curvatures necessitated by a permanent upright stance.

The main reason this find was so monumental is because it her skeleton has provided a wealth of information about the ancestral line of human beings, some of it quite surprising.

A. afarensis is classified as an ape, not a human. It is a Hominid--that is, an ape closely related to human beings. In terms of overall body size, brain size and skull shape, "Lucy" resembles a chimpanzee. However, A. afarensis has some surprisingly human characteristics. For example, the way the hip joint and pelvis articulate indicates that "Lucy" walked upright like a human, not like a chimp (far left). This means that upright posture and bi-pedalism preceded the development of what we would recognize as human beings and human intelligence.

Note:

Until 1994, A. afarensis was the earliest Hominid species yet discovered. At that time, remains of another species, tentatively called Australopithicus anamensis, was discovered in the Lake Turkana region of east Africa and appears contemporary with afarensis, dating to approximately 4.2 million years ago. A. anamensis is also an erect, bi-pedal species, and its discovery pushes direct evidence of our distinctive Hominid form of locomotion back to over 4 million years ago.

Hope that helps,

Peace