“Humanity has one root… We must be responsible and protect the global environment”｜Dong-A Ilbo

’50th Anniversary of Lucy’s Discovery’ Donald Johanson, Director of Research at Arizona State University
A 3.2 million year old fossil discovered in 1974… Proving ‘brain development after walking upright’
Empowering the ‘African human origins theory’
“Humanity survives by interacting with nature… “We must protect the environment and dream of the future together.”

Lucy Fossil. It is made up of 47 bone fragments, including the arm bones, skull, lower jaw, pelvis, and ribs. Provided by Arizona State University Human Origins Research Center
On November 24, 1974, after a small arm bone fragment of an ancient human was discovered in the Hadar region of northeastern Ethiopia, 47 bone fragments including the skull, lower jaw, pelvis, and ribs were discovered one after another. It was the moment when ‘Lucy’, a symbol of ancient humanity, gave her first greeting to modern humans. As a result of dating, Lucy was listed as a fossil about 3.2 million years ago, making her the oldest archaic human at the time. Researchers gave Lucy the scientific name ‘Australopithecus afarensis.’

Donald Johanson, director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, conducted the first written media interview in Korea with Dong-A Ilbo ahead of the 50th anniversary of Lucy’s discovery. Director Johansson faces a cast of Lucy’s skull. Provided by Arizona State University Human Origins Research Center
Donald Johanson, director of the Human Origins Research Center at Arizona State University, who first discovered Lucy 50 years ago and said, “We need to redraw the genealogy of human evolution,” conducted his first written media interview with this paper in Korea ahead of the 50th anniversary of Lucy’s discovery. Regarding the topic that Lucy’s discovery 50 years ago raised for humanity, Director Johansson said, “Exploring the origins of humanity is a reminder that humans, like all other life forms on Earth, evolved through a process of natural selection,” and added, “That is why. “We must take responsibility to protect the planet we live on,” he emphasized.

● “The moment I saw the bone fragment, I recognized the fossil as being 3 million years old.”

Before discovering Lucy’s bone fragments for the first time, Director Johansson had not harvested much for three years. That day, while returning to base camp, I was excited to find a piece of an arm bone. “I clearly remember Sunday morning when I discovered Lucy’s first bone fragment,” he recalled. “As soon as I saw it, I knew it was a fossil from 3 million years ago.”

On this day, Director Johanson’s camp was enthusiastic. In the 1970s, the paleoanthropology community was interested in finding the ‘first humans’ who diverged from a common ancestor with apes such as chimpanzees, and the fossils that academics at the time believed to be the first humans were from 2.5 million years ago. Director Johanson and the researchers, who listened to the Beatles’ song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ on repeat all night long at camp, named the fossil Lucy.

“Lucy reminds us that the ancestors of all modern humans were one in the past,” said Director Johansson. “I believe that humans, who have a common ancestor long ago, will dream of a future together and become one.”

● Answering the riddle of human origins

Lucy sparked global interest in the origins of humanity by breaking the prejudices that were accepted as orthodoxy in the paleoanthropology community. Charles Darwin, a British biologist famous for ‘The Origin of Species’, cited ‘walking upright’, ‘tool making’, and ‘big brain’ as characteristics of humans. Which features evolved first was a hotly debated topic at the time. The most prevalent hypothesis was that they grew their brains and then walked upright.

However, the analysis of Lucy showed that she was 1m tall, weighed 27kg, and had a brain capacity of about 420cc. It is about the size of a 10-month-old modern human baby. However, it was revealed that Lucy walked upright anatomically. This means that the brain grew larger after walking upright. With the discovery of Lucy, walking upright became important evidence distinguishing humans from apes. In addition, Lucy became evidence that gave great strength to the ‘African human origin theory’, which was not accepted by Western scholars leading the archaeological community.

Now, 50 years later, Lucy is no longer considered the first human. This is because ancient human fossils older than Lucy were discovered. After the discovery of Lucy, archaic human fossils were discovered, including ‘Ardipithecus ramidus’ from 4.4 million years ago, ‘Ardipithecus cadaba’ from 5.2 to 5.8 million years ago, and ‘Sahelanthropus tchadensis’ from 6 to 7 million years ago. Advances the history of mankind.

Nevertheless, after her discovery, Lucy enjoyed the popularity of a Hollywood star. It was common to line up at the museum to see Lucy, and it was news around the world that then-US President Barack Obama took the time to see Lucy when he visited Ethiopia in 2015.

Director Johansson said, “I felt a surge of emotion while revisiting the place where Lucy was discovered recently,” and emphasized, “Humans were also created by nature’s noble choices, so we must remember our duty to nature.” He also said that since the survival of mankind depends on interaction with nature, he hopes that all mankind will become ‘one’ to protect nature and dream of the future together.

Chae-rin Lee, Donga Science Reporter rini113@donga.com

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