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LiveScience
LiveScience
Sophie Berdugo

Scientists claim 'Lucy' may not be our direct ancestor after all, stoking fierce debate

Four early human relative skulls.

For a half century, the iconic "Lucy" fossil species, Australopithecus afarensis, has held the title of being the most likely direct ancestor of all humans.

But as the list of ancient human relatives has grown and more fossils have been discovered, Lucy's position has increasingly been called into question. Now, a key paper published last month in the journal Nature could overturn that theory entirely, some scientists say.

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