Fifty years ago, Kent State University Distinguished Professor Owen Lovejoy, Ph.D., was among the very first researchers to study the remains of the famous “Lucy” (Australopithecus afarensis), a 3-million-year-old fossil that had recently been discovered by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson in Hadar, Ethiopia. When discovered in 1974, “Lucy” resulted in significant breakthroughs regarding the evolution of humankind. While the species, Australopithecus afarensis, shows ape-like characteristics in its physical proportions, it was also discovered to have been bipedal and walked upright on ...