A 3.8-million-year-old skull reveals the face of Lucy’s possible ancestors

The fossilized hominid skull illuminates the earliest-known Australopithecus species

hominid skull reconstruction

A 3.8-million-year-old fossil of a hominid skull (right) offers hints about what the individual looked like (artist’s reconstruction, left).

L-R: Matt Crow/Cleveland Museum of Natural History, John Gurche (facial reconstruction); Dale Omori/Cleveland Museum of Natural History

In a remarkable evolutionary windfall, fossil hunters have discovered neatly fitting halves of a nearly complete, 3.8-million-year-old