Copyright photo PS
National Museum of Ethiopia, King George VI St, Addis.
Archaeological exhibits include a realistic replica of the 3.3-million-year-old
Australopithecus afarensis skull and skeleton parts known as
Lucy (or Dinquinesh -- "thou art wonderful" -- to Ethiopians), whose discovery in 1974 forced a complete re-think of human geneaology, proving that our ancestors were walking 2.5 million years earlier than had previously been supposed.
Lucy's part-skeleton was discovered by Donald Johanson at Hadar, in the Afar region.
Lucy was 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) tall, weighed 29 kg (64 lb), and (after reconstruction) looked somewhat like a chimpanzee. The creature had a small brain like a chimpanzee, but the pelvis and leg bones were almost identical in function to those of modern humans, showing with certainty that Lucy's species were hominins that had stood upright and had walked erect.
Above shows a wall-panel illustrating re-construction of the skeleton (though some doubt whether it should be quite so upright?.)
Other even-earlier hominids have since been found in Ethiopia including in the Omo Valley.
BUT follow this recent Gresham College (Oxford) video (Y Tube) by Robin May on human evolution:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKd4OWgn5ak&t=1632s
The latest leaps in science have evidenced much more than the Lucy "out of Africa:" explanation.
Click diagonal arrows and then press F11 Fullscreen.
Link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(Australopithecus)
