i studied physical anthropology and the theory of evolution during my undergradi had a crush on the professor teaching the course and so was motivated to pay attentionand i remember quite a few of the finds and what they look like by rote , like `` lucy '' , for instance , still hailed as the most complete australopithecus afarensis skeleton to date ; `` beijing man '' , the homo erectus skull from zhoukoudian near beijing , china ; or the juvenile taung child skull , the object of much debate and mud-slinging in the early part of the last century .