In 2007, Lucy kicked off her world tour at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, where she went on public display outside Ethiopia for the first time since her discovery. An estimated 210,000 people viewed the exhibit before she moved on to museums in Seattle and New York. Discussions continue on future exhibit opportunities.
2014 marks the 40th anniversary of Lucy’s discovery, and she continues to excite and stimulate new thinking about human origins. To date, she remains of one of the oldest, most complete A. afarensis specimens ever found. Lucy opened doors into our understanding of early bipedal morphology that subsequent fossils have built upon. The mosaic state of her anatomy suggested, for the first time, that early hominins engaged in both bipedalism and some arboreal locomotion, while still retaining a relatively small brain size. Even now, Lucy is often referred to during bipedalism debates, including the type of bipedalism A. afarensis and other early hominins might have utilized. The growth of high resolution X-ray scanning techniques may make it possible to look inside Lucy’s fossilized skeleton, and analyze the structure of her bones (i.e. trabecular bone). Once again, Lucy may be key to answering these, and other long held questions.
