She is amazing.
Josh and I were lucky enough to have the opportunity to see her on display at the Science Center in Seattle (on March 7th, 2009 - the last day of the expo was March 8th, my birthday).
It was a very emotional outing for me (us)... an archaeologist by profession and an evolutionist by heart.
Here's a little blurb from the Seattle Times, so you may understand why this was one of the few highlights of my life... and why missing out (as so many people have) is one of the major mistakes anyone could make.
<<<< "Lucy, a diminutive human ancestor, strode across the plains of Ethiopia 3.2 million years ago. Her discovery in 1974 — and her Beatles-inspired name — captured the public's imagination. Her bones helped redraw humanity's evolutionary tree. [...] She was small, about 3-½ feet tall and a shade over 60 pounds. Her brain was only about the size of a grapefruit, but her legs, hips and vertebrae indicated she walked upright, like humans. [...] "I think it's best to think of Lucy from the neck up as very like a chimpanzee," Kramer said. "From the neck down, she was much more human-like." [...] The skeleton left no doubt our early ancestors first developed the ability to walk upright, which in turn helped spur development of the oversized brain that distinguishes humans from other species. [...] The night of their discovery, Johanson and his team celebrated over beers. The Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" played in the background. The name stuck, far more memorably than the species' scientific designation: Australopithecus afarensis. [...] Lucy has never before been on public display outside of Ethiopia.">>>>
By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times science reporter
image by: THOMAS JAMES HURST / THE SEATTLE TIMES
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