In 1986, bones from the arms and upper jaw of a hominid alive 1.8 million years ago were found at the Olduvai valley in Ethiopia. They were found by Donald C. Johanson's team, the same team that found me. That's why they call the skeleton "Lucy's Daughter", even though we are separated by 1 million and several hundred thousand years. Now, I will tell you about this.
The skeleton, formally called "specimen number H62", is that of Homo habilis (which means Man with ability) who are very closely related to human beings. They are less than 1m tall, have long arms, and big brain capacity. Paleoanthropologists were all surprised to see the skeleton because, while the height and the proportion of Homo erectus of 1.6 million years ago, which is only 200 thousand years later than this era, are not so different from those of modern man, their skeletons had the strong characteristics of apes. That is to say their height and the length of their arms are not so different from mine of 3.5 million years ago. They discovered, however, that the brain capacity had been increasing and the teeth had degenerated.

"Lucy's Daughter" gave scholars a rough idea of human evolution. That is, after Australopithecus had begun to walk on two feet, their brains didn't develop very much. But by the time they had evolved to the stage of Homo habilis, who used stone implements, their brains had developed rapidly, while their physical characteristic remained those of apes. Furthermore, when they evolved into Homo erectus from Homo habilis, their physical characteristics became just like those of modern day man.

In fact, the relation between "Lucy" and "Lucy's Daughter" is not yet clear. Some say Australopithecus died out and are not the ancestors of Homo habilis. Others say, yes, they are ancestors. But I can tell you one thing. There is no doubt that "Lucy's Daughter," that is to say, Homo habilis, is the ancestor of human beings. In this family tree, when you look at the genus homo, you'll see that Homo habilis is connected directly to Homo sapiens. But other relations still remain a mystery. That is to say the relation between Homo habilis, Australopithecus and Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.

By the way, the story I have been telling happened in Africa, and in addition, they have discovered another fossil which is a little bit older than me. Don't you think Africa is a great "time capsule"?                               Introduction of Lucy