Talk about cracking a cold case: Nearly 3.2 million years ago, Lucy died. Now we may know how.
Lucy, the iconic human cousin whose skeleton was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, died shortly after she fell out of a tree, according to a new study published Monday in the peer-reviewed British journal Nature.
More than four decades after her discovery, Lucy remains one of oldest, best and most complete skeletons of any adult, erect-walking hominid, according to John Kappelman, an anthropologist at the University of Texas and the lead author of the study. A hominid is a member of the evolutionary family that includes great apes – such as gorillas, chimps, and orangutans, humans, and their ancestors, some of which are extinct.
Lucy, an example of the oldest known hominid australopithecus afarensis, died at roughly 15 years old in present-day Ethiopia. A small creature, about 3 feet 6 inches tall and only 60 pounds, she probably spent nights in a tree to avoid bigger, potentially dangerous predators, Kappelman said.
Scientists dubbed her Lucy from the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," which was played at the archaeological camp the night of her discovery, according to Arizona State University's Institute of Human Origins.
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