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Lucy's Legacy: the Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia

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Lucy's Legacy: the Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia DOCENT EDUCATION PACKET FOR TOUR DEVELOPMENT Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasure of Ethiopia February 10, 2013 – May 12, 2013 Docent Materials prepared by Cameron Jean Walker, Ph.D. and the Bowers Museum Education Department January 2013 Table of Contents Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasure of Ethiopia An Introduction to Lucy’s Legacy………………………………………………….3 A Magical Mystery Tour of Lucy…………………………………………….........4 What Do We Know About Lucy?.............................................................................7 The Afar Triangle…………………………………………………………………14 Discussion Points …………..…………..………..…………...…………………..16 Key Facts About Lucy....…………………………………………………….........23 Anticipated Questions and Answers to be Used with Museum Visitors………….25 Photos for Background & Context……………..………………………………... 28 Images of Lucy…………………………………………………………………....33 “Let Lucy Sparkle”………………………………………………………………..34 “Discoverer of Lucy Fossil Weighs in On Human Evolution”…………………...36 Abbreviated Bibliography………………………………………………………...38 Bowers Museum Docent Education Packet: Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasure of Ethiopia January 2013 Page 2 Introduction to Lucy’s Legacy Excerpted from the Bowers Museum press release Ethiopia is the cradle of mankind, the birthplace of coffee, the purported resting place of the Ark of the Covenant—and home to Lucy, the 3.2 million year old hominid that has become the world’s most famous fossil. Even three decades after her discovery, Lucy continues to profoundly influence our understanding of human origins. With 40 percent of her skeleton intact, Lucy remains the oldest and most complete adult human ancestor fully retrieved from African soil. The Lucy fossil evokes a strong response from everyone who sees her, and as such, she is the ultimate goodwill ambassador for Ethiopia. Lucy not only validates Ethiopia’s claim as the Cradle of Mankind, she also introduces viewers to the rich cultural heritage that has flourished in Ethiopia over the course of the last 3,000 years, and to the vibrant country that Ethiopia is today. This exhibition is an opportunity for people to better understand current scientific theory of human evolution, and to see for themselves how the discovery of Lucy continues to profoundly influence our understanding of human origins— even 30 years after her discovery. Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasure of Ethiopia is an International Exhibition organized by the Houston Museum of Natural Science in collaboration with The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Exhibition Coordinating Committee. National Tour underwritten by The Lester & Sue Smith Foundation and Ethiopian Airlines. Bowers Museum Docent Education Packet: Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasure of Ethiopia January 2013 Page 3 A Magical Mystery Tour of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) by Cameron Jean Walker, Ph.D. Essentials of Paleoanthropology Paleoanthropology is the study of early humans. It involves the discovery and interpretation of physical evidence left behind by human ancestors, or hominins. Paleoanthropologists search for and interpret physical evidence, such as fossils and artifacts. After excavating, reconstructing, dating, and measuring the physical evidence, paleoanthropologists hypothesize about what it tells us about our human ancestors. They try to describe when and where the hominins lived, their appearance, and their capabilities and skills. Paleoanthropologists base their hypotheses on the physical evidence they find, their knowledge of anatomy, and their observations of human and animal behavior in the modern world. The names used to delineate human ancestors come from a scientific system of categorizing animals and plants called taxonomy. Taxonomy was invented by Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus in 1758. It is a way of assigning to each living creature a two-part Latin name. The first part indicates the genus to which the creature belongs and the second part indicates the species. Example: Homo sapiens Some of the earliest human ancestors belonged to the genus Australopithecus. Later human ancestors and modern humans belong to the genus Homo. Paleoanthropologists have assigned human ancestors to a variety of species. A species is a distinct population with a specific shape, size, behavior, and habitat. Bowers Museum Docent Education Packet: Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasure of Ethiopia January 2013 Page 4 Species assignment is not always easy because the differences in anatomy between two species can be small. As paleoanthropologists unearth new hominin fossils and artifacts, and reanalyze familiar ones using new technologies, they sometimes name new species and often question old species and genus assignments. What is a Hominin? Roughly speaking, a Hominin is what we used to call a Hominid. A creature that paleoanthropologists have agreed is human or a human ancestor. These include all of the Homo species (Homo sapiens, H. ergaster, H. rudolfensis), all of the Australopithecines (Australopithecus afarensis, A. boisei, etc.) and other ancient forms like Paranthropus and Ardipithecus. What is Australopithecus afarensis? One of the longest-lived and best-known early human species— paleoanthropologists have uncovered remains from more than 300 individuals. Found to have been living between 3.85 and 2.95 million years ago in Eastern Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania). This species survived for more than 900,000 years, which is over four times as long as our own species has been around. It is best known from the sites of Hadar, Ethiopia, where these famous fossils were found: o ‘Lucy’ (AL 288-1) o 'First Family' (AL 333) - 13 individuals including adult males, females and children o Dikika, Ethiopia (Dikika ‘child’ skeleton) o Laetoli Footprings - fossils of this species plus the oldest documented bipedal footprint trails Bowers Museum Docent Education Packet: Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasure of Ethiopia January 2013 Page 5 What else has been learned about Australopithecus afarensis? Similar to chimpanzees, A. afarensis children grew rapidlyafter birth and reached adulthood earlier than modern humans. This meant A. afarensis had a shorter period of growing up than modern humans have today, leaving them less time for parental guidance and socialization during childhood. A. afarensis had both ape and human characteristics: o Members of this species had apelike face proportions (a flat nose, a strongly projecting lower jaw) o A braincase (with a small brain, usually less than 500 cubic centimeters -- about 1/3 the size of a modern human brain) o Long, strong arms with curved fingers adapted for climbing trees o They also had small canine teeth like all other early humans o A body that stood on two legs and regularly walked upright o Their adaptations for living both in the trees and on the ground helped them survive for almost a million years as climate and environments changed. Bowers Museum Docent Education Packet: Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasure of Ethiopia January 2013 Page 6 What Do We Know Now About Lucy? o A. afarensis is known from many fossil finds in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia, including Lucy. o Lucy is particularly important because she is the most complete and well- preserved A. afarensis fossil ever found. o Unearthed in 1974, around 40% of her full skeleton was recovered, making her the most complete skeleton of an early human relative known at the time.Australopithecus afarensis lived between about 3.8 and 3.0 million years ago in eastern Africa. A. afarensis is one of the best-known early hominin (human-like) species. o Lucy transformed our thinking about how early hominins walked. o This relative completeness helped scientists begin to understand how early human-like species walked on 2 legs (bipedally). o A. afarensis was once thought to be the earliest human relative to habitually walk upright, but there is now some evidence to suggest earlier species, including A. ramidus, also walked bipedally. Lucy - the most complete skeleton Perhaps the world's most famous early human ancestor, the 3.2-million- year-old ape "Lucy" was the first Australopithecus afarensis skeleton ever found, though her remains are only about 40 percent complete. Discovered in 1974 by paleontologist Donald C. Johanson in Hadar, Ethiopia, A. afarensis was the earliest known human ancestor species for about 20 years. What did Lucy look like? With a mixture of ape and human features—including long dangling arms Pelvic, spine, foot, and leg bones suited to walking upright Slender Lucy stood three and a half feet (107 centimeters) tall Re-creations based on other A. afarensis skulls later found nearby reveal an apelike head with a low and heavy forehead, widely curving cheekbones, and a jutting jaw A brain about the size of a chimpanzee's Bowers Museum Docent Education Packet: Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasure of Ethiopia January 2013 Page 7 Why was Lucy named Lucy? On the day the specimen was found, the Beatles’ hit song, "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds", was played repeatedly at a celebratory party, so researchers gave it the name of Lucy. How do we know Lucy was female? Lucy's size gives her away as a female. Later fossil discoveries established that A. afarensis males were quite a bit larger than females. Was Lucy an adult? A number of factors point to Lucy being fully grown. For one thing, her wisdom teeth, which were very humanlike, were exposed and appear to have been in use for a while before her death. Also, the sections (growth plates)
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