Q 01/05

Which band's song, played over and over at the Ethiopian dig camp in 1974, gave the Lucy skeleton her name?

A) The Rolling Stones

B) The Beatles

C) Pink Floyd

D) The Beach Boys

Answer · why

B) The Beatles

The Beatles released Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds in 1967, and it played again and again while the expedition celebrated the find. The skeleton's cat...

Q 02/05

A 2016 University of Texas study of cracks in Lucy's bones argued that she most likely died in which way?

A) A crocodile attack

B) A flash flood

C) A lightning strike

D) A fall from a tree

Answer · why

D) A fall from a tree

A fall from a tree would explain breaks in her shoulder, ankle and ribs, like those of someone who reaches out to stop a plunge. Her discoverer disagr...

Q 03/05

In 2015 scientists concluded that one small vertebra long kept with Lucy's skeleton belonged to which other animal?

A) A baboon

B) A hyena

C) An antelope

D) A warthog

Answer · why

A) A baboon

A baboon of an extinct species was the match for the bone, which a stream probably washed in beside Lucy's remains. It was too small and too water-wor...

Q 04/05

Which American president was invited to touch one of Lucy's bones at a state dinner during a visit to Ethiopia?

A) George W. Bush

B) Bill Clinton

C) Barack Obama

D) Jimmy Carter

Answer · why

C) Barack Obama

Barack Obama was allowed to touch a fossil vertebra, a privilege normally kept for scientists. The skeleton had been carried in secret and under tight...

Q 05/05

A NASA probe named after the Lucy fossil launched in 2021 to study Trojan asteroids that share which planet's orbit?

A) Mars

B) Jupiter

C) Saturn

D) Neptune

Answer · why

B) Jupiter

Jupiter shares its path around the Sun with the Trojans, which the mission treats as fossils of planet formation. On the way the probe passed a small ...