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What’s the 3.2 million-year-old human ancestor skeleton’s name, found in Ethiopia in 1974?

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What name was given to the 3.2 million-year-old skeletal remains of a human ancestor found in Ethiopia in 1974?

The name Lucy was given to a 3.2 million-year-old skeletal remains of a human ancestor found in Ethiopia in 1974. An expedition member suggested naming the skeleton after the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” played at the team camp repeatedly during the night of the discovery.

Wolfgang Sauber, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Which Lucy is going to space in 2021?

Photo: NASA / Bill Ingalls

NASA spacecraft named Lucy launched Saturday, Oct.16, 2021, on a 12-year quest to explore eight asteroids sharing Jupiter’s orbit, thought to be the original leftovers of planetary formation. The NASA vehicle is named after the Lucy skeleton.

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