November 24 1974, Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover the 40% complete Australopithecus afar
November 24 1974, Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover the 40% complete Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, nicknamed “Lucy” (after The Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”), in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia’s Afar Depression. 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, akin to that of humans(and other hominins); this combination supports the (debated) view of human evolution that bipedalism preceded increase in brain size -- source link
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