Who found 'Lucy', the fossil that was said to be an example for australopithecus afarensis?

Question

Who found 'Lucy', the fossil that was said to be an example for australopithecus afarensis?

Answer 1

Lucy WAS found with a 'hip bone,' so we know that she was female.  Her skeleton was remarkably complete.

Also, she dates to 3.5 million years ago - NOT from the days of Pangaea.

Interestingly, she's called "Lucy" because Donald Johanson was listening to the Beatles in his Jeep that morning.  "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was on the radio.

Answer 2

Good question! I've often wondered how they knew the knee bone was female when I presumed they'd need pelvic bones to do that.  Maybe the bones are from the days before the continental drift on Pangrea? (250 million(?) years ago).

The archeologists were Donald Johnson and Tom Gray on 24th November 1974 in Ethiopia.

Answer 3

Richard Leakey, son of Louis and Mary Leakey who both began the work in Africa at the Olduvai Gorge and Lake Turkana.

See the book "Origins" [which is now considered 'old' and I imagine he has newer information out now]... It is authored by Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin.

It is said that 'Lucy', [named after the John Lennon song], was aprox. 4 mil. yrs. old, stood upright, and was a member of the more sophisticated Afrarensis branch of the later Homo Sapien sapien [us]...

There are contentions yet today among anthropologists...but this is nothing new. I believe that somewhat older remains have now been discovered.

The below urls may be helpful to your question, also.

Answer 4

Don Johansen who currently works at the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University.

Answer 5

I think it's some American called Donald. By the way do you know that Lucy was found in Ethiopia.

Answer 6

Donald Johanson and Tom Gray in 1974 at Hadar in Ethiopia.