Evolving technology and artificial intelligence are pushing the boundaries of our concept of what it means to be human. But understanding that concept doesn’t start in the present day, but rather millions of years ago.
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has established a legacy when it comes to the discovery and understanding of our ancient human origins. That legacy reaches back to 1974 when a former curator of the museum, Dr. Donald Johanson, helped discover an Australopithecus afarensis specimen in Hadar, Ethiopia.
The world would come to refer to the specimen as Lucy. Her name a reference to the Beatles song, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
The discovery and subsequent findings helped to further our understanding of the evolution of hominins. And the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s anthropological program continues to shape research in the field.
Two curators from the museum recently joined Ideastream Public Media’s “Sound of Ideas” to talk about Lucy and how the discovery changed the field of paleoanthropology and created a buzz around the study of human origins that exists to this day.
Dr. Elizabeth Sawchuck says even 50 years after the discovery of Lucy, she still captivates the world.
“She was the oldest and most complete ancient human species ever found. And so, she's still this iconic fossil that really serves as a benchmark, that all other fossil discoveries are compared against. So now she's no longer the oldest ancient human that we know of, but she's still one of the most complete,” said Sawchuck.
Sawchuck says Lucy made the concepts of paleoanthropology much easier for non-scientific people to understand. She says it helps that Lucy was given a big splash in the media when she was introduced to the world here in Cleveland.
“She was discovered in 1974 and then actually announced at a press conference, here in Cleveland, and in association with National Geographic. You know, she had a bit of a media storm. And she's continued that, especially with our partners at the National Museums of Ethiopia. They've kind of continued the hype of Lucy. It catalyzes people to get excited about Africa, excited about our ancient past and thinking about the awesomeness of fossil hunting,” said Sawchuck.
Dr. Emma Finestone joined the program by phone from Kenya. She agreed that Lucy allows modern humans to think about the ancient past in a way that may not normally have been possible.
“I think Lucy is a lot of people's gateways into thinking about their evolutionary past and their shared origin to all other people on Earth, and that's true for the general public, but that's also true for even paleoanthropologists,” said Finestone.
She says the discovery of Lucy and the others that came after have inspired a generation of paleoanthropologists. Over the decades, experts have been able to piece together how and where Lucy lived and how she may have died.
“I think it has really helped people to relate themselves to the natural history story, and the idea that we're animals, that walked the earth with all other animals and evolved like all other things on Earth. And so, I think the legacy of Lucy is this shared connection to each other and to the rest of the natural world,” said Finestone.
Guests:
- Emma Finestone, PhD, Associate Curator and Robert J. and Linnet E. Fritz Endowed Chair of Human Origins, The Cleveland
- Elizabeth Sawchuk, PhD, Associate Curator of Human Evolution, The Cleveland Museum of Natural History
