Ancestor Lucy 'not alone'

The 52 bone fragments amount to 40% of the skeleton.

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She was, for a while, the oldest known member of the human family. Fifty years after the discovery of Lucy in Ethiopia, the remarkable remains continue to yield theories and questions.

In a non-descript room in the National Museum of Ethiopia, the 3.18-million-year-old bones are delicately removed from a safe and placed on a long table.

They consist of fossilized dental remains, skull fragments, parts of the pelvis and femur that make up the world's most famous Australopithecus afarensis, Lucy.

The hominid was discovered on 24 November 1974, in the Afar region of northeast Ethiopia by a team of scientists led by Maurice Taieb, Yves Coppens, Donald Johanson, Jon Kalb, and Raymonde Bonnefille.

The 52 bone fragments, amounting to some 40% of Lucy's skeleton, was, at the time, the most complete ever found, and revolutionized the understanding of our ancestors.

The skeleton was initially called A.L-288-1, in reference to Afar and its geolocation.

But the researchers nicknamed it Lucy after The Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, which they listened to after celebrating their discovery.