Google Doodle celebrates the discovery of ancestor 'Lucy'

New York, Nov 24: Google Doodle on Tuesday, Nov 24 celebrated the 41st anniversary of the discovery of the world's most famous early human ancestor, 3.2 million-year-old ape 'Lucy'.

'Lucy' was the first Australopithecus afarensis skeleton which was discovered in 1973. Though only 40 per cent remains of the skeleton were discovered, it gave us enough information about transition of Homo sapines.

Donald Johanson and Tom Gray in Ethopia discovered the remnants of skeletons which became a puzzle of how human came from?

Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct hominid that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago.

Exactly 41 years ago, the humanity came to know about the oldest known example of a bipedal primate and a crucial stepping stone between apes and homo sapiens.

Unearthed in Ethiopia by palaeontologist Donald C Johanson, Lucy became the oldest known example of a bipedal primate.

Lucy had many similarities like humans and the skeleton showed that she primarily walked upright like human do.

Bipedalism is seen as one of the key distinctions between Homo sapiens and chimpanzees.

According to National Geographic, with a mixture of ape and human features -- including long dangling arms but pelvic, spine, foot, and leg bones suited to walking upright -- slender Lucy stood three-and-a-half feet tall.

Google doodle celebrated their discovery while showcasing the moving skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis placed in between of an ape and modern human and how 'Lucy' is filling that gap between the two traits embedded in Google logo.

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Inspired by repeated playings of "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" at a celebratory party on the day the specimen was found, researchers named it 'Lucy'.

Lucy's size gives her away as a female. Later fossil discoveries established that A. afarensis males were quite a bit larger than females.

A number of factors point to Lucy being fully grown.

For one thing, her wisdom teeth, which were very human-like, were exposed and appear to have been in use for a while before her death.

"In addition, the sections of her skull -- separated in children -- had grown together," the National Geographic report added.

Lucy's bones are kept in a museum in Ethiopia.

OneIndia News
(With agency inputs)