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ASU exhibit showcases humanity from centuries ago
A new exhibit on display at ASU peels back the curtain on humanity from more than three million years ago.
The university is behind countless human-origin discoveries, including humanity's most famous prehistoric ancestor.
It's been 50 years since Lucy captured the world's attention, and in those 50 years since, Arizona State University has become a major player in finding the origins of humankind.
Lucy is a humanoid with a very science-y name.
"Lucy goes by the name australopithecus afarensis," said Christopher Campisano, associate professor at ASU's School of Human Evolution and Social Change, and Institute of Human Origins research scientist.
Her cast is now on display at ASU's School of Human Evolution and Social Change. The exhibit is celebrating 50 years since the monumental global discovery.
Finding Lucy changed everything.
"It started a new narrative. How we evolved, how we came about to be who we are today," said Yohannes Haile-Selassie, director of the Institute of Human Origins.
Haile-Selassie currently leads three different research teams in Africa, digging in areas near where Lucy was found.
"They tell us where we came from and where we're going. That's the key thing. Why do we study the past? Because we say the past is the clue to our present and future," Haile-Selassie said.
The area in Africa did a great job preserving the skeletal remains.
"In the past, when Lucy was there, you would have had much more of a wooded grassland or grassland wooded environment. A lot more vegetation, more precipitation, and higher in elevation as well," Campisano explained.
Since Lucy was found, many others have been located.
Haile-Selassie found a complete skull hundreds of thousands of years Lucy's senior.
"Cranial like that, a complete cranial, is really extremely rare. You don't find them. They get broken into pieces, and usually you find bits and pieces …," Haile-Selassie said.
They say ASU is a leading researcher in finding the answers to the origins of humanity, and those three ASU dig sites still hold a lot more answers.
"It's really what's generating all of this data, particularly at the time when we think our genus homo started appearing 2.8 million years ago, all the way to the beginnings, and past Lucy four million years ago," Haile-Selassie said.
Even though Lucy was found 50 years ago, they're still learning so much more about the discovery. In fact, researchers just learned, using details from her hips, to find Lucy was not a very good runner.
Click here to learn more about Lucy and the exhibit.