Lucy has and continues to play a fundamental role in our understanding of our ancient ancestors and how we evolved.

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with paleoanthropologist, Donald Johanson, about the 50th anniversary of his biggest discovery, Lucy, an early human ancestor.

The 3.2-million-year-old fossil, discovered 50 years ago, is considered to be one of the most significant early hominin ...

A collection of 3-million-year-old bones unearthed 50 years ago in Ethiopia changed our understanding of human origins.

Paleontologists unearthed the iconic fossil in 1974. Today, her legacy remains just as much cultural as it is scientific.

Fifty years after a fossil skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis was unearthed in Ethiopia, we know so much more about how ...

After an uneventful morning, Donald Johanson walked back to his Land Rover and glanced over his right shoulder. DONALD JOHANSON: Had I glanced over my left shoulder, I would've missed this little ...

Reportedly, Dr. Johanson returned to camp in 1974 with some of Lucy’s fossilized remains, and as team celebrated, someone ...

Dr. Johanson and his team were looking for the evolutionary “missing link”… the creature who had evolved from a plain old ape ...

Arizona State Professor Donald Johanson discovered the Lucy fossil skeleton—dated at over 3 million years old—in Ethiopia 50 ...

Perhaps most importantly, Lucy’s discovery foreshadowed a series of fossil finds that filled in the scientific picture of her species. By 1978, enough evidence had accumulated to establish Lucy as the ...