
Reconstruction of the famous hominin Lucy
Frank Nowikowski/Alay
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One hundred years ago, on November 28, 1924, anthropologist Raymond Dart opened a box. He had a shipment of fossils from a quarry in Taung, South Africa, including a small skull that appeared to be part ape, part human. Dart named itAustralopithecus africanus: South African man-ape“. It was the first Australopithecus specimen to be identified, and the first evidence that early humans evolved in the year…