What Lucy Taught Us: Insights from the Discovery of a 3.5 Million-Year-Old Skeleton

In the fascinating journey of human evolution, scientific findings often reshape our understanding of where we come from. The IELTS Reading exam frequently incorporates such groundbreaking discoveries to test comprehension and critical thinking skills. This article delves into one such real IELTS Reading exam passage titled “What Lucy Taught Us,” examining the monumental discovery of Lucy, an early human ancestor, that has shed light on critical aspects of human evolution.

The Actual IELTS Reading Passage

What Lucy Taught Us

A scientific finding in East Africa has changed our understanding of how humans have developed.

On a Sunday morning in late November 1974, a team of scientists was digging in an isolated spot in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Surveying the area, paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson spotted a small piece of bone. Straight away, he recognized it as coming from the elbow of a human ancestor. And there were plenty more, “As I looked up the slopes to my left, I saw bits of the skull, a chunk of jaw, a couple of vertebrae,” says Johanson.

It was immediately obvious that the skeleton was a significant find, because the sediments at the site were known to be 3.5 million years old. “I realized this was part of a skeleton that was older than three million years,” says Johanson. It was the most ancient early human ever found. Later it became apparent that it was also the most complete—40% of the skeleton had been preserved.

At the group’s campsite that night, Johanson played a Beatles song called “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, and, as the feeling was that the skeleton was female due to its size, someone suggested calling it Lucy. The name stuck and Johanson says, “All of a sudden, she became a person. But the morning after the discovery, the discussion was dominated by questions. How old was Lucy when she died? Did she have children? And might she be our direct ancestor? Nowadays, we’re starting to get the answers to some of these questions.

According to Johanson, Lucy had an incredible combination of primitive and derived features, which had not been seen before. Her skull and jaws were more ape-like than those of other groups of early humans. Her braincase was also very small, no bigger than that of a chimp. She had a hefty jaw, a low forehead, and long dangly arms.

For Johanson, it was immediately apparent that Lucy walked upright. That’s because the shape and positioning of her pelvis reflected a fully upright gait. Lucy’s knee and ankle were also preserved and seemed to reflect bipedal walking. Later studies of feet offer even more evidence. As an upright walker, Lucy strengthened the idea that walking was one of the selective pressures driving human evolution forward. Early humans did not need bigger brains to take defining steps away from apes. Extra brainpower only came over a million years later with the arrival of the species Homo erectus, meaning upright man. Though big brains would clearly be important later, walking remains one of the traits that make us uniquely human.

She may have walked like a human, but Lucy spent at least some of her time up in the trees, as chimpanzees and orangutans still do today. It may be that upright walking evolved in the trees, as a way to walk along branches that would otherwise be too flexible. It’s not clear why Lucy left the safety of the trees. It is thought that savannahs were gradually opening up, so trees were spaced further apart. But hunting for food may have been the real reason for heading to the ground, says Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London. In line with this idea, recent evidence suggests that the diet of early humans was changing at that time.

Studies of the remains of food trapped on preserved human teeth indicate that several species, including Lucy’s, were expanding their diet around 3.5 million years ago. Instead of mostly eating fruit from trees, they began to include grasses and possibly meat. This change in diet may have allowed them to range more widely, and to travel around more efficiently in a changing environment. Fossilised crocodile and turtle eggs were found near her skeleton, suggesting that Lucy died while foraging for them in a nearby lake.

Lucy Skeleton

How did early humans process all these new foods? Later species, like Homo erectus, are known to have used simple stone tools, but no tools have ever been found from this far back. However, in 2010 archaeologists uncovered animal bones with scratches that seem to have been made by stone tools. This suggests that Lucy and her relatives used stone tools to eat meat. There have since been heated debates over whether or not the marks were really made by tools. But if they were, it is not surprising, says Fred Spoor of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

It also seems that Lucy’s childhood was much briefer than ours and that she had to fend for herself from a young age. We know that Lucy was a full-grown adult because she had wisdom teeth and her bones had fused. But unlike modern humans, she seems to have grown to full size very quickly, and the time of death was when she was around 12 years old. In line with that, a recent study of a 3-year-old early human suggested that their brains matured much earlier than ours do.

Reading Questions

Questions 1–5

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 1–5 on your answer sheet, write:

• TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
• FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
• NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1. Donald Johanson was uncertain about the nature of the elbow bone he found in Afar.
2. Several bones were found by Donald Johanson at the same site in Afar.
3. The experts realised the importance of the discovery at Afar.
4. It was the upper part of the skeleton that had suffered the least damage.
5. The skeleton’s measurements helped Johanson’s team to decide if it was male or female.

Questions 6–13

Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 6–13 on your answer sheet.

Lucy

Physical features

• jaws and skull like those of an ape
• braincase similar in size to that of a chimp
• long arms

Movement

• the positioning and shape of her pelvis made it clear that she walked like a human
• upright movement possibly started among the 6 ___ of trees
• probably moved to the 7 ___ in search of food

Diet and eating habits

• analysis of food in the 8 ___ of the skeletons of early humans shows changes in their diet
• it is likely that meat and grasses were substituted for 9 ___
• 10 ___ that were located close to Lucy suggest these were also part of her diet
• 11 ___ that were found had marks on them, possibly made by tools used for eating

Comparisons with modern-day humans

• modern-day humans have a longer 12 ___ than Lucy did
• the 13 ___ of modern-day humans appear to develop later than Lucy’s did

Answer Keys and Explanations

Questions 1–5

1. FALSE – Johanson recognised the bone straight away.
2. TRUE – Johanson found several bones at the same site.
3. NOT GIVEN – There is no mention of when the experts realised the importance.
4. NOT GIVEN – The text does not specify damage to different parts of the skeleton.
5. TRUE – The size of the skeleton helped determine it was female.

Questions 6–13

6. branches
7. ground
8. teeth
9. fruit
10. eggs
11. bones
12. childhood
13. brains

Common Mistakes in This Type of Reading Task

1. Misinterpreting ‘NOT GIVEN’ information. Students often mistake ‘NOT GIVEN’ for ‘FALSE’. Always check if there is any mention of the statement before deciding.
2. Overlooking keywords. Key terms and phrases provide vital clues and help prevent misunderstandings.
3. Ignoring specific instructions. If asked to use one word only, using two or more words will result in incorrect answers even if the content is correct.

Difficult Vocabulary from the Passage

• Paleoanthropologist (n) /ˌpeɪliəʊˌænθrəˈpɒlədʒɪst/: A scientist who studies ancient humans and their relatives through fossils.
• Sediments (n) /ˈsedɪmənts/: Matter that settles at the bottom of a liquid; layers of material that have been deposited by water, wind, or ice.
• Primitive (adj) /ˈprɪmɪtɪv/: Relating to the early stages in the evolutionary development of a particular group or feature.
• Derived (adj) /dɪˈraɪvd/: Developed or obtained from something else.
• Foraging (v) /ˈfɒrɪdʒɪŋ/: Searching for food.

Important Grammar Structures to Note

• Past Perfect Tense: Used for actions completed before another action in the past. E.g., “I realized this was part of a skeleton that had been preserved.”
• Relative Clauses: Clauses starting with who, which, where, etc., giving additional information about something or someone. E.g., “Recent evidence suggests that early humans, including Lucy’s, were expanding their diet.”
• Passive Voice: Used when the focus is on the action, not the person who performs it. E.g., “Fossilised crocodile and turtle eggs were found near her skeleton.”

Understanding these aspects of language will not only aid in comprehending the reading passages effectively but also enhance your overall English language proficiency.