Lucy "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" |
How did one of Ethiopia's most famous residents come to be named after a beatles song? It all begans on November 30, 1974. It started out the same as any other day at Hadar, an archaeological site in Ethiopia. Paleontologists Tom Gray and Donald Johanson were exploring an area where they had found fossils before. As they walked along, surveying the area, johanson happened to notice a small, broken piece of bone sticking out of the ground. As he examined it, Johanson realized that the bone was anatomically similar to a human bone. As the two men continued to search the area, they realized that they had found about 40 percent of a skeleton, and one that was very well preserved.
Lucy's skeleton was amazing not only because she was a new species of hominid ( apes and humans that walk upright), but also because her skeleton was so complete. She seemed to have died and been buried quickly in mud or sand, so that her bones were not scattered by water or destroyed by weathering. Only about one in every one million animals ever becomes a fossil, and chances of so many bones from one individual being preserved together is even more rare. For these reasons, Lucy becomes famous around the world. |