A 2.5-million-year-old fossil of a hominin species called Australopithecus africanus had been discovered in South Africa.

The difference in size between Lucy's petite bones and more massive ones found at Hadar also puzzled paleoanthropologists. But careful analysis of thousands of fossils, and a remarkable discovery ...

Donaldjohanson, a main belt asteroid, could be a relic of a cosmic collision that took place 150 million years ago.

Donaldjohanson formed about 150 million years ago when a much larger asteroid broke apart. Since then, its orbit and spin ...

"It's rarely the case that fossil bones record evidence of how the individual died," he said in a phone interview. An illustration depicts the hypothesis of Lucy's fatal fall from a tree.

afarensis (e.g. Lucy). However, “[t]he contemporaneity of the two species now suggests that a more complex family tree prevailed early in the human evolutionary process,” the study authors write.

including those represented by the famous ‘Lucy.’” The new fossils have also confirmed another suspicion about Paranthropus robustus. Scientists theorized that this species’ small stature likely made ...

The team first scanned Lucy’s bones, which represent about 40 percent of her complete skeleton, using X-ray computed tomography. The technique allowed them to peer deep into the fossils, and trace the ...

A fossil of a partial face from a human ancestor is the oldest in western Europe, archaeologists reported Wednesday. The incomplete skull — a section of the left cheek bone and upper jaw – was ...

Fossils for males and females often differ, particularly in a species like Lucy's that is sexually dimorphic: Males are much larger than their mates, and their fossils are marked by deeper muscle ...