Iceman may have come to an unfortunate end while crossing the Alps more than 5,000 years ago, but thanks to his ...

Australopithecus afarensis is one of the best-known early human ancestors dating from 2.9-3.9 million years ago. The partially complete Australopithecus afarensis skeleton Lucy, or Dinkʼinesh (Amharic ...

Lucy was eventually revealed to be an early hominin—a member of a hominid subfamily that includes humans, chimps and bonobos—with a brain about one-third to one-fourth the size of modern humans who ...

From Chimps Eating Medicinal Plants to Footprints Tracking Our Early Relatives, Here Are the Most Significant Human Evolution Discoveries of 2024 Smithsonian paleoanthropologists explore how the ...

The partial skeleton of this small-bodied, relatively small-brained female captured the public’s imagination. Lucy the “paleo-rock star” took our major fossil evidence for bipedal walking ...

Lucy’s species probably wasn’t a direct predecessor to modern humans, but it could be one of many options. The discovery of different early human species which existed around the same time — around 3 ...

In pursuit of knowledge, the evolution of humanity ranks with the origins of life and the universe. And yet, except when an ...

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