On November 24, 1974, a groundbreaking discovery emerged from the Middles Awash of the Afar Depression near Hadar, Ethiopia, when paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson and his team unearthed the most complete early human skeleton ever found in history — a specimen later dubbed Lucy, classified as Australopithecus afarensis.
What made this find so remarkable was just how much of the skeleton survived. Despite being buried roughly 3.2 million years ago, the remains yielded 47 of the normal 207 bones — an astonishingly high percentage. Among the recovered pieces were portions of the arms, legs, pelvis, and spine.
The team marked the occasion by playing the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and it was this very song that inspired the skeleton's now-famous name.
The discovery itself came about almost by chance. As Johanson surveyed the area, he noticed bones protruding from the earth. His astonishment grew when he recognized that these weren't animal remains at all — they belonged to a hominid. The team then conducted a meticulous excavation, carefully uncovering the rest of this hidden paleontological treasure.
Because so many bones were recovered, the team was able to piece together an impressive profile, determining Lucy's height, weight, gait, diet, mode of life, and cause of death.
Standing about 3.5 feet tall and weighing in at 64 pounds, Lucy walked upright, subsisted on plants, and made her bed in a tree nest. Researchers concluded she died from a fall from a tree, noting that certain cracks in her arm looked like they were caused by a fall instead of erosion.
So what did Lucy's skeleton teach scientists about our distant ancestors? Her brain turned out to be small — roughly the size of a modern chimpanzee's. Perhaps even more significantly, her remains demonstrated that upright walking began far earlier than anyone had guessed.