Jenny Vaughan
Lucy’s skeletal remains, an ancient human ancestor dating back 3.18 million years and originating from Ethiopia, will be showcased for the first time in Europe this year at a museum in Prague, as announced by the Czech Prime Minister on Tuesday.
The discovery of this Australopithecus afarensis in Ethiopia in 1974 was groundbreaking, leading to a significant shift in our knowledge of human evolution.
Lucy’s skeletal remains will be displayed in Europe for the first time, as announced by Prime Minister Petr Fiala regarding the loan from the National Museum of Ethiopia.
The pieces will be exhibited at the National Museum of Prague in the “Human Origins and Fossils” exhibition from August 25 for a two-month duration.
The exhibition will also feature Selam, an Australopithecus baby fossil discovered in the same location as Lucy but about 100,000 years earlier.
Lucy, in her present condition, consists of fossilized teeth, skull pieces, pelvis, and femur fragments. The 1.1-meter-tall, 29-kilogram fossil was transported from Ethiopia to various U.S. museums between 2007 and 2013.
Name’s origin
The researchers named him after hearing the Beatles song “Lucy in the sky with diamonds” following the discovery.
Scientists believe that Lucy was already walking upright and would have died between the ages of 11 and 13, which is considered adulthood for her species.
For a long time, it was considered the oldest human ancestor known until the finding of Toumai in Chad, the skull of an extinct hominid genus from 6 to 7 million years ago.