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Google Doodle honours the 41st anniversary of ‘Lucy the Australopithecus’ skeletal discovery

The discovery was nothing short of a revolution in the field of archaeology

Updated: November 24, 2015, 3:03 AM IST

Google Doodle honoured the 41st anniversary of the skeletal discovery of ‘Lucy’, the name given to hominid from the Australopithecus afarensis species, who is scientifically proven to have lived around 3.2 million years ago in Ethiopia.

The discovery of Lucy was nothing short of a revolutionary finding in the field of archaeology. Her fossilised bones were recovered in 1973 from Ethiopia. 40 per cent of her body finds were found intact. After making the historic find, paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson gave her skeletar remains the name of ‘Lucy’, based on the the Beatles song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’.

As the skeletal remains were being analyzed, it was further revealed that Lucy was one of the important fossil recovered since it belonged to previously unknown species.

Lucy was very near to human beings in terms of resemblance. Similar to humans, she walked in an upright manner. By studying her bones, in particular the structure of her knee and spine curvature, scientists were able to discover that she spent most of her time walking on two legs.

Scientists claim that Lucy was 3.7 feet tall and 29 kgs in weight. Although it walked upright, it was quite small in size as compared to humans. Her skeletal remains are kept in a National Museum in Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa. Lucy’s platsic replica is kept in the public for tourists to observe.

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