If Lucy were alive today she wouldn’t look human at all. Lucy is a member of the Australopithecus afarensis species that’s the oldest human-like species yet discovered.

This hominid whose skeleton was unearthed in Ethiopia 41 years ago stood only 1.1 meters (3.7 ft.) tall and weighed a mere 29 kilograms (64 lb.). Anthropologists believe Lucy died young and might have been attacked by predator as suggested by teeth marks in some of her bones. But like anything having to do with the life of this ancient hominid, that’s all speculation.

What is a fact is Lucy remains the oldest human-like creature yet discovered. She lived some 3.2 million years ago in a place we now call Ethiopia.

She still remains in Ethiopia. Her fossilized bones rest at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. Lucy is, in fact, a collection of remarkably complete and well-preserved fossilized bones representing some 40 percent of the original hominid, said The Independent.

What is also a fact is Lucy did walk upright as modern humans do. This alone makes her special as she’s the first hominid known to have walked upright.

Scientists came to this conclusion by studying her bones. What clinched the conclusion Lucy walked upright was the structure of her knee and spine curvature, which showed she walked on two legs and didn’t drag her knuckles across the ground.

Scientists believe that one Australopithecus genus was the ancestor of Homo genus, which includes modern humans. They aren’t certain, however, which Australopithecus species gave rise to Homo or the species of modern humans.

Lucy’s discovery by a team that included paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson was commemorated by Google with a special Google Doodle recently. It was Johanson that gave this collection of bones the name Lucy.

And, yes, he named the creature after Lucy in the classic Beatles hit, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. The song was playing on Johanson's tape player when they decided to give the female hominid a name.

Lucy’s species went extinct some two million years ago.

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