I realized immediately that this was a terribly important discovery, but I didn't realize how important it would be until we had spent a lot of time in the laboratory studying it.

Generally thought to be members of the species Australopithecus afarensis they are estimated to be about 3. Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. S.

Along with Maurice Taieb and Yves Coppens he is known for discovering the fossil of a female hominid australopithecine known as "Lucy" in the Afar Triangle region of Hadar Ethiopia.