
When did rats come to the Americas, and was Lucy really our direct ancestor?
Science Magazine Podcast
The Significance of Lucy's Discovery in Human Evolution
Lucy, a significant fossil discovery made by paleoanthropologist Don Johansson in 1974, revolutionized our understanding of the human family tree. Prior to Lucy's discovery, fossils from the 1950s and 60s indicated the appearance of Homo genus around 2 million years ago in Africa. Charles Darwin had also predicted the African origin of the human family in the 1870s. Lucy's discovery challenged previous beliefs and reshaped our understanding of human evolution.
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