Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind

I am one of the many fortunate people to have visited the Texas Museum of Natural History. Doubly fortunate in that "Lucy" was on exhibit.
I am not one to just observe and not have many questions, i knew i would find a book about her in the gift shop. What better than to read the account actually written by the one who found her!!
This story takes one through the in's and out's of anthropology,geology,personalities,and intricacies of the search for our past.It was easy to understand and became a book i could not put down.
I had to keep reminding myself this story was in 1974 and written in 1981.
I am now interested in books that have filled in the time period from 1981-I hope they are written by Johanson, or in this style.

This book is great. It outlines the dicoveries in Africa of the earliest hominids, our ancestors. It is very interesting and written in a manner that makes it want to be read, like a good fiction story, except it's science. Science that can be read by anyone and enjoyed because it is written in a style that makes it easy to understand.

How did we (humans) come about is a mystery that is intelligently discussed, and the story of how Lucy was found and how she fits into our evolutionary past is a story that should be read by any seeking answers to who we are.

Johanson's work definitely changed dogma. His story is very interesting. I recommend books by others (e.g. Leakey) to prevent being biased by Johnason's hypotheses alone.

If you are only going to buy one book on paleoanthropology, don't make it this one. If, however, you are interested in seeing the progression of paleoanthropological thought and getting a first-hand account of the process of excavating and surveying millions-of-years-old sites, it would be hard to find a more satisfying read.

Much of Johanson's work is quite thorough. He goes to great lengths to lean on the specialized knowledge of experts in many different areas of science, and does a beautiful job of weaving them together for a plausible view of our "ancestor", as he refers to the title skeleton find, a 40% complete skeleton of australopithecus afarensis. Of course, no respectable modern paleoanthropologist would consider Lucy to be our ancestor today, but Johanson's analysis is interesting nonetheless.

Another of Johanson's follies is his dependence upon "the Lovejoy hypothesis" of bipedal locomotion being a biological response to a need to carry food and tools. While this is interesting in and of itself, I would recommend reading Richard Leakey/Roger Lewin's rebuttal to Lovejoy in their "Origins Reconsidered..."

Overall, this book is best described as a historical document. Much of its scientific value is reduced to an example of how controversial the major finds of human ancestors will always be.

As a reader who has a sparse knowledge of anthropology, I can say this book was a pleasurable and informative read.

Dr. Johanson divided the book into a prologue and five parts. The prologue describes the events of November 30, 1974, the day Lucy was discovered. The first part covers a brief background to the earliest fossil finds and is invaluable to any reader who is interested in who's who among some of the earliest scientists working on human origins. Part two covers his actual field expeditions to East Africa. During his first field season, Johanson became concerned about financing when his original grant of $43,000 was dwindling away. It is interesting to note, as Johanson describes about anthropology, that science is more than just field work and analysis. There is political, financial, and human relation issues that need to be mastered for the mission to succeed.

I found part three, the analysis of Lucy, to be the most compelling. Johanson includes Le Gros Clark's paper and accompanying illustrations to highlight eight differences between chimpanzee jaws and human jaws. Knowledge of these differences were of immeasurable value in the analysis of an australopithecine jaw. Part four delivers a brief account of how our ancestors began to walk upright. I found this to be interesting but highly speculative. The final section includes drawings of how australopithecus afarensis may have appeared.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone with a desire to know more about human ancestors and how a paleoanthropologist proceeds in uncovering our past.