Wo ist Laetoli?
Laetoli ist eine bedeutende paläontologische Fundstelle von Fossilien aus dem Pliozän im Norden von Tansania. Sie befindet sich im Ostafrikanischen Graben etwa 45 Kilometer südlich der Olduvai-Schlucht und rund 200 km westlich von Arusha, im Bereich der Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Wie sind die Fußspuren von Laetoli entstanden?
Vor 3,6 Millionen Jahren liefen drei Australopithecus afarensis durch die feuchte Asche eines ausbrechenden Vulkans. Als die drei Vormenschen dort entlang spazierten, spuckte der Vulkan Sadiman gerade eine Aschewolke aus. So hinterließen sie ihre Spuren in dem zudem angefeuchteten Boden.
Who is the woman called Lucy?
Paleoanthropologist Donald C. Johanson is the man who found the woman that shook up our family tree. In 1974, Johanson discovered a 3.2 million-year-old fossil of a female skeleton in Ethiopia that would forever change our understanding of human origins. Dubbed Australopithecus afarensis, she became known to the world as Lucy.
How far away was the site of the Lucy find?
The site lay about 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) from the site where „Lucy“ subsequently was found, in a rock stratum 60 metres (200 ft) deeper than that in which the Lucy fragments were found. The team returned for the second field season the following year and found hominin jaws.
What is Lucy’s legacy?
His new book, Lucy’s legacy: The Quest for Human Origins picks up where his 1981 New York Times bestseller, Lucy: The Beginning of Humankind left off — posing thoughtful questions as to what exactly makes us who we are. TIME caught up with Dr. Johanson to discuss how our family tree has gotten a bit more bushy.
How old is Lucy the chimpanzee?
Lucy was discovered in 1974 in Africa, at Hadar, a site in the Awash Valley of the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia, by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The Lucy specimen is an early australopithecine and is dated to about 3.2 million years ago.