The story starts on November 24, 1974, following a long, hot morning of mapping and surveying fossils at the site of Hadar in Ethiopia. Before leaving to head back to camp, paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson and graduate student Tom Gray decided to investigate a small gully that had previously been checked twice before by other workers. Just before the pair began to leave, Johanson discovered what would end up being an arm bone laying on a slope. Shortly thereafter, a skull fragment was found, then a femur. The pair continued exploring, slowly locating other pieces of bone including vertebrae, part of a pelvis, ribs and pieces of jaw.

When everyone returned to camp the evening of the discovery, amongst all the excitement and jubilation, the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” was playing over and over on a tape recorder at the camp. It remains unclear when, or by whom, the skeleton was named “Lucy,” but it stuck.

In all, several hundred fragments of bone were recovered, 47 of which formed a small fossil skeleton – AL 288-1 – representing 40% of a single hominid skeleton. It would become one of the greatest fossil discoveries of all time and have a major impact on the science of human origins and evolution.

As part of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Lucy, this special CARTA lecture series examines the discovery’s impact through time, starting with the first few years after the discovery to state-of-the-art research today. The field looks at reigniting a global interest in how we “became human” and promoting the importance of connecting our human past to the global future on the planet.

Explore CARTA: The Impact of “Lucy” on Human Origins Science.