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The small skeleton in the Natural History Museum in London is a specimen of a juvenile human female, known as "Lucy." She is a member of the species Australopithecus afarensis, and is estimated to have lived over 3 million years ago.
The small skeleton, Lucy, is important because she is one of the oldest and most complete fossil specimens of a human ancestor ever found. She provides valuable information about the physical characteristics and behavior of our early ancestors.
The small skeleton was discovered in 1974 by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson and his team in the Afar region of Ethiopia. They were searching for fossils in the area and came across several bone fragments, which they later realized belonged to the same individual.
The small skeleton was nicknamed "Lucy" by the team of scientists who discovered her, after the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was played repeatedly during their celebrations after the discovery. The name has since become widely used and has even been adopted by the Ethiopian government as the official name of the specimen.
Visitors can learn about the evolution of humans and our early ancestors by studying the small skeleton. They can see the physical characteristics that distinguish Lucy from modern humans, and learn about her way of life and the environment she lived in. The small skeleton also helps to shed light on the common ancestor of humans and apes.
