Lucy may be the best-known prehuman fossil in the world. But other famous fossils have given us important insight into our ...

In pursuit of knowledge, the evolution of humanity ranks with the origins of life and the universe. And yet, except when an ...

It was already pretty hot by the time Donald Johanson and his graduate student, Tom Gray, arrived at the site at Hadar, ...

Assigned to a new species, Australopithecus afarensis, but best known by her simple nickname, Lucy had a mixture of ape and humanlike traits that suggested she occupied a pivotal branch in the ...

A collection of 3-million-year-old bones unearthed 50 years ago in Ethiopia changed our understanding of human origins.

Perhaps most importantly, Lucy’s discovery foreshadowed a series of fossil finds that filled in the scientific picture of her species. By 1978, enough evidence had accumulated to establish Lucy as the ...

When the parts were assembled, her arms resembled chimpanzee arms and her skull suggested a chimpanzee’s skull. But her ...

But Lucy and other fossil finds reveal that more than 3 million years ago, a relatively small-brained, ape-faced human ancestor walked steadily on two feet. To get a picture of how Lucy's species ...

The current view that an ape named Lucy was among a species that gave rise to the first early humans may have to be reconsidered. The discovery is reported in the journal Nature. The skull was ...

Our understanding of human ancestry has changed dramatically since the discovery of Lucy the ancient hominin 50 years ago.

Assigned to a new species, Australopithecus afarensis, but best known by her simple nickname, Lucy had a mixture of ape and humanlike traits that suggested she occupied a pivotal branch in the human ...