The Hominid Gang: Behind the Scenes in the Search for Human Origins - Softcover

Willis, Delta

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140147322 ISBN 13: 9780140147322

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1991

Synopsis

The Hominid Gang explores a search for man's roots that extends Alex Haley's saga by millions of years. Delta Willis, who rode "shotgun" with some of modern paleontology's most famous fossil-finders, brings to life these scientific safaris into the lands and times of our ancestors. "Always engaging . . . a delightful piece of work".--The Washington Post. Full-color and black-and-white photographs throughout.

About this title

About the Author

Delta Willis searched for fossils alongside Richard Leakey for her first book, The Hominid Gang, Behind the Scenes in the Search for Human Origins. When China first opened to Western tourism, she joined Lindblad Travel to escort groups into the People's Republic. Willis crossed the Sahara with a London Zoological Society/WWF expedition which led to the establishment of the largest nature reserve in Africa. In addition to articles for Audubon, Outside, People, Natural History, Diversion, and The New York Times, Willis is the author of 4 books, including The Sand Dollar & The Slide Rule, and several editions of the Fodor's Travel Guide to Kenya & Tanzania.Her first career was at New York's JWT, then the world's largest advertising agency. As V.P., Director of Programs & Press for a unit of British television, Survival Anglia Ltd, she promoted the work of world's best wildlife filmmakers. Subjects included humpback whales, Iain Douglas Hamilton's research on elephants, and Alan Root's epic on the wildebeest migration.Recently, Willis was Sr Communications Manager for the National Audubon Society at their headquarters in New York, and also served as Communications & Media Manager for Earthwatch, where she promoted the work of 130 research scientists around the globe.  More at deltawillis.com
 
  

From Publishers Weekly

Scientists' awareness of seven hominid species antedating our own spurs the tantalizing search for human origins. Willis, a contributor to Omni and People who has hiked across East Africa with leading paleontologists, reviews the recent, dramatic discoveries of Richard Leakey, Donald Johansen and other paleoanthropologists in a detailed yet meandering report that will appeal to serious students but may leave the general reader bewildered. Among the finds discussed are the "Turkana Boy," a 1.6-million-year-old Homo erectus skeleton found in Kenya in 1984, and hominid footprints preserved in volcanic ash in Tanzania, dating back 3.5 million years. Besides exploring current controversies, Willis profiles key investigators, among them Mary Leakey, Kamoya Kimeu, Joseph Mutaba and Frank Brown. She also examines the "Theory of Eve," which holds that a single female Homo erectus mothered all of us--a hypothesis being tested via DNA analysis.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0140147322
• ISBN 13: 9780140147322
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 368