‘Lucy’ (ca. 3.2 mya)
Discovered in 1974, the 3.2 million-year-old skeleton of an adult female hominid in Ethiopia, christened ‘Lucy’, remains the earliest example of a member of the human genus to be found, and is the cornerstone of modern palaeoanthropology.
Several similar discoveries, including a 2.3 million-year-old jawbone in the Hadar region of Egypt, offer further evidence that the human species evolved in East Africa.
