Lucy in the Museum With Shrink Wrap

Exhibition model makers working to fit sculptor John Gurche’s life-sized recreation of Lucy onto the model tree in the Lucy diorama section of the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonian museum in Washington. Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) was discovered in Hadar, Ethiopia in 1974 by Donald Johanson and Maurice Taieb. Lucy was nicknamed that very night as Donald Johanson’s team celebrated to the Beatles’ hit “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Her Ethiopian name, “Dinenesh,” is Amharic for “you are beautiful.”

Courtesy Chip Clark/Smithsonian Institution