Lucy, famous human ancestor, goes on display for the first time in Europe

The bone fragments of Lucy , a famous 3.18 million-year- old human ancestor , came uniquely from Ethiopia and are on display for the first time in Europe , at the National Museum in Prague.

The ancient remains of this Australopithecus afarensis were discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. The find was, at the time, the most complete ever found and revolutionized our understanding of humankind's ancestors.

Lucy's skeletal remains are on display alongside Selam, the fossil of an Australopithecus girl who lived about 100,000 years before Lucy and was found in the same location 25 years later.

"Both skeletons are among the most precious exhibits of global heritage (...) they are on display in a European country for the first time in history," said Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala during the opening of the exhibition.

Ethiopian Tourism Minister Selamawit Kassa emphasized that this is the first time Lucy and Selam have been exhibited together outside of Ethiopia, making the exhibition a one-of-a-kind event.

Selam has never left Ethiopia and Lucy has once exhibited in the United States.

"Ethiopia is unparalleled for its continuous fossil record of human ancestors spanning six million years, with 14 specimens of human ancestors , from Australopithecus to Homo sapiens , discovered" in the country, Kassa added.

The 52 Lucy fragments will be on display for 60 days as part of the Human Origins and Fossils exhibition.

The discoverer of Lucy, the American Donald Johanson , and the discoverer of Selam, the Ethiopian Zeresenay Alemseged , also attended the opening in Prague.

Johanson singled out Africa as the place where "we first diverged from African apes , where we first stood upright, where our brains began to grow, where we first began to make art and specialized stone tools, and where we, the so-called Homo sapiens, evolved."

" We all share a common ancestor , we are united by our past, and I think this is an enormously important reminder for humanity today," he added.

In its current state, Lucy is composed of fossilized dental remains, skull fragments, parts of the pelvis and femur.

Its 1.1-meter-tall fossilized skeleton last left Ethiopia between 2007 and 2013, when it toured museums in the United States.

The hominid was named after the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ," which the team that found it listened to to celebrate the discovery.

Lucy was bipedal – she walked on two legs – and is believed to have died between the ages of 11 and 13 , considered an adult age for this species.

For a long time, she was considered the oldest human ancestor found, but she was dethroned in 1994 after the discovery, also in Ethiopia, of Ardi , a female Ardipithecus ramidus that lived 4.5 million years ago.

In 2001, Toumai—a skull dated to six or seven million years old—was found in Chad, suggesting that the human family may date back much further than previously thought.

In a 2016 study, researchers reported that Lucy had strong arms, suggesting that she climbed trees and sheltered in branches at night.

It also had relatively weak legs that were not used for climbing and were ineffective for walking, the study concluded.

An analysis of a fracture in one of Lucy's bones performed that same year suggested that she probably died after falling from a tree.