'Finding Lucy' exhibit

Fifty years ago, a young paleoanthropologist named Donald Johanson was walking in the dusty landscape of the Afar Rift Valley of Ethiopia, when he discovered the first human ancestor fossil who reliably walked upright on two feet — “Lucy.”

Popularly known as Lucy because of the discovery team listening to The Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” —  the 3.2-million-year-old fossilized Australopithecus afarensis skeleton remains the most complete representative of human ancestors who were adapting to life on a changing landscape.

The Institute of Human Origins and the School of Human Evolution and Social Change have partnered to create an exhibit to mark this milestone in human origins. Through photographs, specimens, casts, and lifelike reproductions, this exhibit tells the marvelous story of Lucy's discovery, explores how she fits into the human family tree, and reveals how she continues to inform our understanding of what makes us human.