On Nov. 24, the 41st anniversary of the discovery of Lucy the Australopithecus was celebrated with a Google doodle.
The doodle shows a walking austrolopithecus afarensis placed between an ape and human filling the gap between the two.
'Lucy' is a collection of fossils that at one time made up the skeleton of a hominid from the Australopithecus afarensis species. She was discovered in Ethiopia in 1973 where 40 percent of her bones were intact and dated back to 3.2 million years ago, The Independent reported.
The pelvic structure of the fossil confirmed she was female. After the discovery, paleoanthropist Donald Johanson went back to his campsite and put a Beatles cassette in a tape player. When "Lucy in the Sky Diamond" came up, and one of the scientists suggested they name the fossil Lucy, and she became a person.
According to a finding of the structure of her knee and spine, Lucy walked upright making her the first example of such a primate. Before her discovery, scientists assumed that bipedalism came hand in hand with the development of large brains but Lucy's was not large.
Australopithecus afarensis was the closest primate to the homo genus. According to Telegragh, the Homo habilis is the earliest form of homo and is believed to have descended from the afarensis or consequent Australopithecus before homo sapiens came about 200000 years ago.
Apparently, Lucy's fossil bones are still in Ethiopia where they were found. The bones are hidden from the public in a special safe at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Adis Ababa not far from where it was discovered. Only an identical fake skeleton is placed for the public to see.
On his trip to Africa, recently, Barack Obama visited the fossil and was allowed to touch it, a rare opportunity only reserved for scientists.