In 1974, anthropologists in Ethiopia found the astonishing fossilised remains of a human-like creature who last walked the planet some 3.2 million years ago. Was ‘Lucy,’ as the hominid was called, the direct ancestor of Homo sapiens? Was she ‘The Mother of Mankind,’ as some headlines claimed? Over the years, the dramatic assertion has come under attack by doubters, who point to ancient yet inconclusive finds in Kenya and Chad. But a new fossil, reported on Wednesday, may have dealt Lucy’s claimed status an irreversible blow. Another species of hominid lived at the same time and in the same Afar region of Ethiopia, according to the paper, published in the journal Nature. Named Australopithecus deyiremeda, the hominid and Lucy are probably only part of a wider group of candidates for being our direct forerunners, the finders said. ‘The new species is yet another confirmation that Lucy’s species,

Read More: ‘Lucy’ may not be our mum, says scientist from Cleveland Museum of Natural History