Lucy In Search Of Human Origin

This week’s video is about how humans evolved and their ancestor, homo erectus. The homo erectus were the first apes to be able to walk on two feet just like humans. They evolved from apes about two million years ago. Compared to apes, homo erectus had bigger arms, longer legs, and bigger brains. This made them really similar to humans. They even have the same skeletal structure as humans. Although they have similarities they also have differences. Unlike humans the homo erectus had smaller brains and slightly larger jaw structures.Although they had smaller brains they were able to think more advanced than apes. They also grew at a faster rate than humans. They are the perfect example of human evolution.

Many people often consider our first milestone in life to be our first step. It is the beginning of many important developments as an individual. It was also the beginning of our development as a species. Dr. Donald Johanson and Dr. Tim White discovered two of the most amazing specimens that would be the stepping-stones to the beginning of evolutionary development. Australopithecus Afarensis (Lucy) and Ardipithecus Ramidus (Ardi) were the first fossils found in Africa that showed signs of early evolutionary development that is connected to Homo sapiens in the evolutionary tree. Lucy and Ardi are important to our

Throughout history, humans have gone through evolution and adapted to new environmental changes to survive. One would wonder how they manage to survive and dominate the Earth for so long. A possible ancestor to humans known as Homo erectus (sometimes called Homo ergaster) may have been the reason why humans have been so successful in survival today. Homo erectus has been a live about 1.89 million years ago to 143,000 years ago. He was the first hominid to leave Africa and was also known as Turkana Boy in Africa, Peking Man in China, and Java Man in Indonesia. H. erectus gained his name for being able to stand upright or have an erect posture. One can say that they are the pioneers of the Old World because they were the first hominid to master the use of fire. Once evolution took place, they began developing larger skulls. This allows their brain to grow larger, thus becoming even more intelligent. Because of this, H. erectus became very successful in creating cultural technologies that allowed them to adapt to new environmental opportunities. Through speculating this

Through the fossil record, scientists have been able to observe the changes among different homo genus, as they evolved over time becoming what we now know as the modern human (Fossil Record, 2015). The fossil record not only organizes the sequential generations that have changed over time to adapt better to their environments, but it also provides a time line to how homo sapiens came to exist (Fossil Record, 2015). Through careful analysis of the human fossil record, characteristics in the skull such as the brow ridge, brain size, cranial capacity, dentition, nasal cavity, eye sockets, mandible, and the cranial base are all characterizes, that both connect the three specimens Homo erectus, Neanderthals, and modern human, as well as, set them apart.

Lucy is a 3.2 million old ape that was found in 1974. She was the first Australopithecus Afarensis to ever be found. She looked like a mixture of ape and human. She is 3 and a half feet tall, from this they determined that she was a female because afarensis males are a bit larger than the females. The finding of Lucy is very important because it proves that

The ancient relative of humanity dubbed "Lucy" may have been one of a harem of girls that mated with a single male, according to research that suggests her species was polygynous.Among the earliest known relatives of humanity whose skeletons were made for walking upright was Australopithecus afarensis, the species that included Lucy.Members of the Australopithecus lineage, known as australopithecines, are among the leading candidates for direct ancestors of the human lineage, living about 2.9 million to 3.8 million years ago in East Africa.To learn more about Lucy's species, researchers investigated the area of Laetoli in northern Tanzania, which previously showed the earliest known footprints belonging to hominins humans and related species

On November 30th, 1974, a female who is half human and half ape collapsed into an ancient lake approximately three million years ago. Don Johanson who is an Anthropologist, who has been leading fodiscovered her fossilized bones and named her Lucy. Fossil are evidence of ancient life forms or ancient habitats which have been preserved by natural processes He found several bone fragments such as, a jaw bone, a leg, and a bit of skull. About 40 percent of Lucy skeleton was found. Johanson categorized as a early species of hominids: Australopithecus afarensis,This marvelous discovery has questioned all people over the world, if Lucy was the missing link between ape and us. She left a few of clues to her life and origins.

The origins of anatomically and behaviorally modern humans is a prominent debate amongst paleoanthropologists. Ultimately, the two main ideas hypothesizing the origins of modern H. Sapiens are the Multiregional Hypothesis and the Out-of-Africa Hypothesis. The former states that all modern humans evolved from the H. Erectus that had once

‘Lucy’ was exposed by Donald Johanson, an anthropologist, with his team, went to survey Hadar in Ethiopia during the late 1970s for signs in understanding Human origins. On November 24, 1974 by the Awash River, Donald’s’ plan for the day was to update his notes but decided otherwise when one of his students, Tom Gray, joined him to find fossil bones. Both of them were on the hot waterless plains examining the sandy terrain when a fossil was spotted; it turned out to be an arm bone fragments on a slope. As they looked closer, more and more bones were found, including a jaw, arm bone, a thighbone, ribs, and vertebrae. Donald and Tom had cautiously examined the limited skeleton and calculated that a remarkable 40% of a hominid skeleton was salvaged,

In recent years, anthropologists have made incredible work in discovering all the different kinds of human species. The discovery of a certain human species, the Australopithecus Afarensis, was mostly credited to the finding of a single individual, AL 288-1, or “Lucy.” She has helped anthropologists to understand the diet, anatomy, environment, sexual dimorphism, the technology or tools used during their time, and bipedalism of this early hominin. The evolution of humans is interesting due to the questions we are trying to find and the answers we might never find. While investigating the mysteries behind Australopithecus Afarensis, it may shine some light on how closely related to this ancestor species.

This chapter starts from the beginning, explaining the evolution of the first human ancestors, seven million years ago. Our closest living relatives are the gorilla, chimpanzee, and the bonobo. We all originated in Africa, the first to leave being the Homo erectus. Neanderthals have always been depicted as brainless, wild, careless creatures, but evidence shows they actually cared for their sick and buried their dead. "The Great Leap Forward" is what Diamond calls the earliest signs of standardized tools, jewelry, bone tools, and more. This great leap was 50,000 years ago. Also at this time is the spread of hominids to New Guinea and Australia. Large animal species that were not evolved to defend themselves against such predators were wiped

The most famous member of the human family tree was a fossil named “Lucy”. Lucy was a fossil discovered in 1974, and named after the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. “Lucy lived some 3.2 million years ago. She belonged to the species Australopithecusafarensis” ( Bower) Lucy was a hominid, that means she came from the same family as our most recent ancient relatives and humans. The reason for being such a famous member of the family tree is because it is one of the few full skeletons of our most recent ancient relatives. Lucy plays a great role in our study of human evolution.

This uncovering of Lucy was very fascinating and answered many questions to our human evolution.The search for human ancestry has been ongoing for the past century since the publication of Charles Darwin’s “Origins of the Species”. As more evidence about the ‘branches’ of the evolutionary tree of many distinct animals and

Prof Brian Villmoare of the university in Vegas said that it contains a clear link into a 3.2 million year old hominid who was eventually discovered in the same place in 1994 who was called Lucy. Anthropologists question if Lucy’s kind which is the Australopithecus afarensis could have evolved into which may be the very

In the greatest debate of anthropology lies the all consuming desire to know where we as humans come from. Who were our ancestors and what made them so different from us? It is debated if A. africanus or Australopithecus afarensis is the direct ancestor of the genus Homo. Through critical evaluation of the features of the skeleton, dentition, and use of bipedality, it is evident that A. africanus is a direct ancestor to modern humans while possessing features from both humans and hominins.