A new study led by paleoanthropologists reveals that Lucy's species Australopithecus afarensis had an ape-like brain. However, the protracted brain growth suggests that -- as is the case in humans -- ...

A 3.4M-year-old set of foot bones from Ethiopia is forcing paleoanthropologists to redraw one of the most familiar diagrams in science, the human family tree. For decades, Lucy, the famous ...

More than three million years ago, in the area that is now Ethiopia, our early human ancestors lived in a landscape that consisted of rivers, wetlands, and scattered woodlands. However, new research ...

With long limbs and a big brain, the ancient hominin Australopithecus afarensis is among the most human-like of our potential ancestors. Exactly how A. afarensis combined human- and ape-like traits ...

April 1 (UPI) --The early hominin Australopithecus afarensis-- known to many as Lucy -- walked upright and boasted a brain 20 percent bigger than a chimp's. Some scientists estimate Lucy used simple ...

Digital modelling of legendary fossil's soft tissue suggests Australopithecus afarensis had powerful leg and pelvic muscles suited to tree dwelling, but knee muscles that allowed fully erect walking.

Lucy’s kind had small, chimplike brains that, nevertheless, grew at a slow, humanlike pace. This discovery, reported April 1 in Science Advances, shows for the first time that prolonged brain growth ...

The species Australopithecus afarensis inhabited East Africa more than three million years ago, and occupies a key position in the hominin family tree, as it is widely accepted to be ancestral to all ...