Philatelic document - 50 years since the discovery of Lucy's bones

Description

In the 1970s, the discovery of Lucy's bones on the banks of the Awash River in Ethiopia irrevocably changed our vision and knowledge of the origins of the human species. It all happened on November 24, 1974, when several members of the International Afar Research Expedition uncovered a few isolated fossil bones emerging from the wall. The excavation work continued, involving the mission's directors (geologist Maurice Taieb and paleo-anthropologist Donald Johanson), paleontologists Claude Guillemot and Yves Coppens, and Ethiopian students and researchers: the entire assemblage was carefully collected under the scientific reference number AL 288-1. It took two years for the discovery to be published in the prestigious journal Nature (1976), and a further two years for it to be given the name of a new species (Australopithecus afarensis) and a precise date: 3.18 million years. Since then, other fossils have been discovered, but less well preserved (52 bone fragments are preserved for Lucy, i.e. 40% of the whole skeleton!): isolated mandible, child skeleton, cranial elements, etc. Lucy was the first to demonstrate the antiquity of bipedalism (even partial bipedalism), long before the process of increasing cerebral volume. Its bone density, the morphology of its hips and knees, and the openness of its pelvis show an individual sharing simian and human traits: around 25 years old, 1.10 m tall, and weighing less than 30 kg. We all know the anecdote widely reported by Yves Coppens - "Lucy's dad", who passed away on June 22, 2022 - that it was while listening to the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" on the excavation site that the discoverers came up with the idea of naming her. But its name in Amharic - Ethiopia's natural language - is even more meaningful: Dinqnesh ("you are wonderful"). How appropriate this baptismal name now seems... Philippe Charlier

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Timbre (héliogravure) : mise en page Ségolène Carron d’après photos Australopithèque afarensis et étapes dans l’évolution humaine © Science photo library Document philatélique : mise en page Ségolène Carron d’après photo Yves Coppens, 1991 (c) Philippe Lafond / akg-images Texte : Philippe Charlier