Re: If man evolved from an ape-like species how do you explain Lucy?

The term "ape" refers to a small number of large tailless primates found 
primarily in Africa and Asia. These are Gibbons, Orangutans, Gorillas, 
Chimpanzees, Bonobos, and Humans. Based on genetic comparisons, it seems 
like Gorillas, Chimpanzees, Bonobos and Humans are all more closely related 
to one another than any of them are to Orangutans or to Gibbons. This idea 
is supported by the fact that the first four all live in Africa, while the 
last two are found in Asia. It would seem that Gorillas, Chimpanzees, 
Bonobos and Humans are all evolved from a common ancestor that lived in 
Africa sometime between 5 and 7 million years ago. In fact, Chimpanzees and 
Bonobos seem to have evolved from a common ancestor which lived in Africa 
only 2 million years ago.

When we talk about the common ancestral species of the African apes, we 
describe them as "ape-like" because we assume that they had characteristics 
which are found in all of their descendants, the contemporary African 
apes. However, since all of the African apes do not all look alike, it is 
difficult to say exactly what that their common ancestor looked like. We 
don't have any fossils of this creature. As a matter of fact, we have not 
found any fossils of the ancestors of Gorillas, Chimpanzees or Bonobos. 
However, we have found a modest number of fossils of the ancestors, and 
relatives of the ancestors, of Humans. One of these fossils is known as "Lucy".

The skeleton known as "Lucy" is about 3 million yars old, not 13 million. 
This probably explains most of your confusion, becuase it means that the 
species to which Lucy belonged evolved after the common ancestor of the 
African apes. The species Lucy belonged to is called "Australopithecus 
afarensis". Looking at Lucy's skeleton, you can see that she would have 
looked much like a short lady with a small head. While Australopithecines 
also had many things in common with Gorillas and Chimpanzees, it seems like 
some of the characteristics that we associate with being human evolved very 
early along the evolutionary "path" that leads to humans.

If you have more questions, here are two good sites which provide more 
information about the fossil record of our ancestors, as well as new findings in 
their fossil record.