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Johanson and White's assertions have already been widely and uncritically reported in major U.S. dailies, and will be published formally this week in a review article in the respected magazine Science. But a backlash has also begun, and if the initial skepticism of some of his colleagues is any indication, Johanson may have to dig in to defend the bare bones of his new species.
* So named because a tape of the Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was playing when a jubilant Johanson-led team returned to base camp after unearthing parts of her in a sediment bed in the Afar region of Ethiopia in 1974.