What species is also known by a shorter name than Australopithecus afarensis?
LUCY The species A. afarensis is one of the better known australopithecines, merely with regard to the number of samples attributed to the species. The species was named by D. Johanson and T. White in 1978. This lead to a heated debate over the validity of the species (seen in a 1980 issue of Science), with the species eventually being accepted by most researchers as a new species of australopithecine and a likely candidate for a human ancestor. Possibly the best-known specimen of afarensis is AL 288-1 “Lucy”, a 3.2 million year old partial skeleton found in November 1974 at Hadar, Ethiopia.
