Why is the discovery of "Lucy's Baby" important?

Question

"Lucy's Baby" is the nickname that the media has given to the fossils of a 3-year old Australopithecus afarensis discovered in Dikika, Ethiopia in the year 2000. The discovery of the 3.3 million year old fossils was publicized this week in the journal Nature.

Oh, yea, and please don't plagarize. I can read the news stories too, so don't just cut and paste from news sources without acknowledging that you did so.

I didn't ask you not to plagarize so that I wouldn't have to read news stories; I asked you not to plagarize because it's dishonest and I want an answer from you, not cut-and-paste. I don't need a lecture about the benefits of research, so please spare me.

Answer 1

"Lucy's Baby", who I believe Anthropologists are calling Selam, is incredibly important to the anthropological community. She can show us what a child looked like 3.3 MYA by comparing her bone structure to that of Lucy found 3.2 MYA. She can confirm for us that hominids back then could walk or run or climb and crawl. We can compare the different lifestyles that Lucy lived in Hadar, Ethiopia to Dakika, Ethiopia where we found Selam. By doing this, we'll be able to tell what the people in these different areas and times ate, if they were nomadic or settlers, if they climbed trees (supposedly Selam did). We've also supposedly found a more complete skeleton which can give us a more in depth look at the body and it's physical development over a short period (200,000 + years). I hope that can help you and please, do some searches online, the complete information is so facinating and in depth that I can never get into it right now. Enjoy!

Answer 2

Its important because it gives us more information regarding early human origins. Scientists are trying to find out how and when "true" humans evolved from an earlier species which had some human and some ape characteristics. This fossil discovery sheds more light on the question. Science is a continual process of discovery, making a hypothesis in order to explain the known facts, and then further discovery. If a theory or hypothesis is good, then new information fits into it. If the theory does not explain the new facts, then the theory is changed or a new theory is developed. This is how science progresses. The opposite of this is religious belief, which does not invite skepticism, does not want analysis, but keeps saying the same thing over and over, no matter how many facts are found which are inconsistent.

Answer 3

It is a very important discovery as the baby skeleton will provide lots more information into the study of humans in the past. It will tell a lot about infancy at the time about the structure of bodies of people at the time and most of all with the find of all the skeleton parts, researchers can rebuild the structure of the body for the very first time. This will answer or confirm many pending questions or answers about the evolution of the human being.

Answer 4

The 3.3-million-year-old fossilized toddler was uncovered in north Ethiopia's badlands along the Great Rift Valley (map of Ethiopia).

Enlarge Photo

The skeleton, belonging to the primitive human species Australopithecus afarensis, is remarkable for its age and completeness, even for a region spectacularly rich in fossils of our ancient ancestors, experts say.

The new find may even trump the superstar fossil of the same species: "Lucy," a 3.2-million-year-old adult female discovered nearby in 1974 that reshaped theories of human evolution. (Related: "Fossil Find Is Missing Link in Human Evolution, Scientists Say" [April 2006].)

Some experts have taken to calling the baby skeleton "Lucy's baby" because of the proximity of the discoveries, despite the fact that the baby is tens of thousands of years older. (See a historical photo gallery on A. afarensis and more information about Lucy.)

"This is something you find once in a lifetime," said Zeresenay Alemseged of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who led the team that made the discovery. (See a video discussing how the new child skeleton was found.)

sort of puts that 6,000 year religion to bed

Answer 5

Archaeologists hope that the baby skeleton, because of its completeness, can provide a wealth of details that Lucy and similar fossils couldn't.

The age of death makes the find especially useful in providing insights into the growth and development of human ancestors.

Answer 6

There are a number of famous people with the name Lucy. Which Lucy do you mean?

Answer 7

It sheds further light on how man evolved.

Answer 8

Evolutionists need more believers.