--- title: How Lucy Changed the Way We Understand Human Evolution description: The important discovery—made on Nov. 24, 1974—gave scientists their "best clues yet" as to what mankind's ancestors looked like canonical: https://time.com/4126011/lucy-australopithecus-discovery/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-24T18:24:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:53:05.758Z article:section: History og:title: How Lucy the Australopithecus Changed the Way We Understand Human Evolution og:description: The discovery gave scientists their "best clues yet" og:url: https://time.com/4126011/lucy-australopithecus-discovery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2700a74c5890d87/69887296bc6cfc62503da890/luc.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Lucy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Lucy the Australopithecus Changed the Way We Understand Human Evolution twitter:description: The discovery gave scientists their "best clues yet" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2700a74c5890d87/69887296bc6cfc62503da890/luc.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Lucy the Australopithecus Changed the Way We Understand Human Evolution  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Nov 24, 2015 6:24 PM UTC  A visitor looks at the 3.2 million year old fossilized remains of "Lucy", the most complete example of the hominid Australopithecus afarensis, at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Aug. 28, 2007 in Houston, Tex. A visitor looks at the 3.2 million year old fossilized remains of "Lucy", the most complete example of the hominid Australopithecus afarensis, at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Aug. 28, 2007 in Houston, Tex.Dave Einsel—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Nov 24, 2015 6:24 PM UTC The Australopithecus has been around for a while now—and so has our knowledge of that human ancestor. The species _Australopithecus africanus_ (“the southern ape of Africa”) was first classified based on a skull found in 1924, which seemed to have characteristics of both humans and apes but which clearly belonged to a creature that walked upright, based on the position of the spinal cord. For the next 50 years or so, new human ancestors were discovered every now and then, including different _Australopithecus_ species—but it was in the 1970s that a [“surge of discoveries”](http://time.com/vault/issue/1977-11-07/page/1/) brought a new level of understanding to human origins. One of those big discoveries was the famous skeleton known as Lucy, who was found on this day, Nov. 24, in 1974: --- > “” --- A few years would pass, however, before the full importance of Lucy would become clear. It was early 1979 when TIME [declared](http://time.com/vault/issue/1979-01-29/page/77/) her a “front-page celebrity” after Johanson announced the Lucy was a specimen of _Australopithecus afarensis_, a whole different species from those previously known _Australopithecus_ examples. Significantly, she dated to a period before hominids split into the brand that led to us and the one that led to extinction. “The implications, says Johanson, are profound,” TIME noted. “First, the old notion that man became bipedal as his brain grew is certainly false: Lucy was small-brained, but could stand erect. Second, because Lucy is basically so primitive, man may have split from his ape ancestors much later than 15 million years ago, as is commonly supposed.” Others in the field, however, like Richard Leakey (son of the famous anthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey and a believer that the common ancestor lived earlier than Lucy did), disputed some of Johanson’s analysis that _afarensis_ was a single, separate species. Despite quibbles over classification, there’s no question that Lucy was and is important to our understanding of human evolution. In 2012, scientist Derek Rossi nominated the spot where she was found for TIME’s [list](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2112644%5F2112566%5F2112588,00.html) of the most influential places in history: “The single most significant place in human history is where hominids first evolved and emerged,” he said. “More specifically, the Afar region of Ethiopia has been the site where many of the most significant early hominid fossils have been unearthed, including the _Australopithecus afarensis_ fossil find by Donald Johanson, dubbed Lucy.” **_Read a 1977 cover story about Richard Leakey’s work, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Puzzling Out Man’s Ascent](http://time.com/vault/issue/1977-11-07/page/1/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4126011/lucy-australopithecus-discovery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4126011/lucy-australopithecus-discovery/"},"headline":"How Lucy the Australopithecus Changed the Way We Understand Human Evolution","datePublished":"2015-11-24T18:24:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:53:05.758Z","description":"The important discovery—made on Nov. 24, 1974—gave scientists their \"best clues yet\" as to what mankind's ancestors looked like","url":"https://time.com/4126011/lucy-australopithecus-discovery/","keywords":["Evolution","Science topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2700a74c5890d87/69887296bc6cfc62503da890/luc.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2700a74c5890d87/69887296bc6cfc62503da890/luc.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Lucy","caption":"Lucy","creditText":"Dave Einsel—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4126011/lucy-australopithecus-discovery/","name":"How Lucy the Australopithecus Changed the Way We Understand Human Evolution"}}]}] ```