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Australopithecus afarensis

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Australopithecus afarensis( "Lucy")
Temporal range:Pliocene
Lucyreplica,Museo Nacional de Antropología,Mexico City
Scientific classification
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Binomial name
Australopithecus afarensis

Australopithecus afarensisis anextincthominid.It lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago.A. afarensiswas similar to slightly laterAustralopithecus africanus.It had aslenderbuild.

A. afarensismay be more closely related to thegenusHomothanA. africanus.Homoincludes the modernhumanspecies,Homo sapiens.[1][2]

The most famous fossil is the partial skeleton namedLucy(3.2 million years old) found byDonald Johansonand colleagues, who, in celebration of their find, repeatedly played theBeatlessongLucy in the Sky with Diamonds.[1][2]

References

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  1. 1.01.1Johanson D.C. & Maitland A.E. 1981. Lucy: the beginning of humankind. St Albans: Granada, 283–297.ISBN0-586-08437-1
  2. 2.02.1Wood B.A. 1994. Evolution of australopithecines. In Jones S. Martin R. & Pilbeam D. (eds) 2004.The Cambridge encyclopedia of human evolution.8th ed, Cambridge University Press, 234.ISBN0-521-46786-1