Title: From Lucy to language /
Authors: Johanson, Donald C.; Edgar, Blake; Brill, David L.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster,
Year: 2006
Subjects: Human evolution.; Fossil hominids.; Australopithecines; Lucy (Prehistoric hominid); Hominidae; Fossils; Anthropology, Physical; Paleontology; Biological Evolution
Abstract: In 1974 in a remote region of Ethiopia, Donald Johanson, then one of America's most promising young paleoanthropologists, discovered "Lucy", the oldest, best preserved skeleton of any erect-walking human ever found. This discovery prompted a complete reevaluation of previous evidence for human origins. In the years since this dramatic discovery Johanson has continued to scour east Africa's Great Rift Valley for the earliest evidence of human origins. In 1975 this team unearthed the "First Family", an unparalleled fossil assemblage of 13 individuals dating back to 3.2 million years ago and in 1986 at the Rift's most famous location, Olduvai Gorge, this same team discovered a 1.8 million-year-old partial adult skeleton that necessitated a reassessment of the earliest members of our own genus Homo.^