Lucien

In 1992, Joel Rock discovered a fossilized skull of Australopithecus afarensis, the same species as Lucy, at Hadar in Ethiopia, where Lucy was also found. 70% of the skull fossil, consisting of about sixty fragments of skull, was recovered through an elaborate connective work, which also showed that its cranial capacity was approximately 500cc.
This hominin species is estimated to have lived about 3 million years ago. As the size of the skull is much larger than that of Lucy’s, it is thought that this skull of the hominin species belonged to a male Australopithecus afarensis. The difference in the size of the skulls provided the basis for the assertion that the bodies of male and female Australopithecus afarensis were also of different sizes. The nick-name of this specimen, ‘Lucien’, was derived from Lucy by adding the -en suffix, meaning ‘male’ in French. Some scholars say that Lucien constitutes evidence that the body sizes of males and females differed during the evolutionary process of the archeoanthropine. However, the debate still continues over the difference in body sizes, as we cannot be certain whether these differences can be put down to individual differences or whether there was an actual difference between the sexes.

Place of Settlement: Ethiopia
Period: About 3 million years ago
Discovery Site: In midstream of the Awash River at Hadar in Ethiopia
Species: Australopithecus afarensis
Nick-name: Lucien (meaning “Lucy’s boyfriend”)
Cranial Capacity: About 550cc
Major Characteristics: Lucien is the fossil hominid suggesting that there was the difference of the body size between the sexes in the evolutionary process of early hominids.