Lucys Child the Discovery of a Human Ancestor - Softcover

Donald C. Johanson And James Shreeve; James Shreeve

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140133836 ISBN 13: 9780140133837

Publisher: Penguin Putnam~trade, 1991

Synopsis

Don Johanson discovered Lucy, the most famous and one of the most complete of hominid remains, in 1974. His controversial interpretation of the remains as representing an ancestor to all subsequent hominid species, including our own, and his bestselling book "Lucy - the Beginnings of Humankind" established him as the most famous living palaeontologist, his one rival being Richard Leakey, whose views of human evolution remain entirely opposed to Johanson's. In this book, Johanson weaves together the story of his return to Africa in 1986, and the discovery of another extraordinary hominid specimen, with a history of the search for human origins and of his bitter disagreements with Leakey.

About this title

From Library Journal

Paleontologist Johanson, the discoverer of the famous "Lucy" skeleton--the subject of Johanson & Maitland Edey's Lucy: The Beginning of Mankind ( LJ 2/1/81)--has uncovered a new fossil in Africa's Olduvai Gorge. While just as tiny as the 3.2-million-year-old Lucy, this Homo habilis specimen lived within 200,000 years of the modern-looking Homo erectus. Johanson believes that a rapid spurt in hominid evolution occurred 1.6-1.8 million years ago, and, in this book, written with science writer Shreeve, he suggests ecological and cultural scenarios for this change. He also describes the grittiness of field research and the personality feuds in his field. Only his persecution complex over treatment by the Leakeys wears thin. While not as objective as Delta Wills's The Hominid Gang reviewed in this issue, below.-- Ed. , this also helps sort out the complexities of paleontology for general readers. Recommended. BOMC featured alternate. Previewed in Prepub Alert, 6/15/89-- Beth Clewis, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community Coll. Lib., Richmond, Va.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

Johanson's 1973 discovery in Ethiopia of "Lucy," the fossil of a three-and-a-half-feet-tall primate, helped scientists to redraw the family tree of our hominid ancestry. In this sequel to Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind , the paleoanthropologist records his excavation in 1986, at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, of the first known skeleton of Homo habilis , believed by many to be the first Homo species. From this fossil and other evidence, Johanson concludes that the evolutionary transition to humankind was more sudden and dramatic than was previously assumed. Far from being "killer apes," our early ancestors, he speculates, were clever scavengers who used their brains to adapt to dry seasons on the savanna. Gracefully written with Shreeve ( Nature: The Other Earthlings ) and riddled with the controversies that divide field researchers, this report offers a roll-up-your-sleeves glimpse of how paleontologists find bones and then use them to piece together a picture of human origins. Illustrated. BOMC featured alternate.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Putnam~trade
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0140133836
• ISBN 13: 9780140133837
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320