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Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins
“Lucy is a 3.2-million-year-old skeleton who has become the spokeswoman for human evolution. She is perhaps the best known and most studied fossil hominid of the twentieth century, the benchmark by which other discoveries of human ancestors are judged.” – From Lucy’s Legacy
In his New York Times bestseller, The Beginnings of Humankind, renowned paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson told the incredible story of his discovery of a partial female skeleton that revolutionized the study of human origins. Lucy literally changed our understanding of our world and who we come from. Since that dramatic find in 1974, there has been heated debate and–most important–more groundbreaking discoveries that have further transformed our understanding of when and how humans evolved.
In Lucy’s Legacy , Johanson takes readers on a fascinating tour of the last three decades of study–the most exciting period of paleoanthropologic investigation thus far. In that time, Johanson and his colleagues have uncovered a total of 363 specimens of Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy’s species, a transitional creature between apes and humans), spanning 400,000 years. As a result, we now have a unique fossil record of one branch of our family tree–that family being humanity–a tree that is believed to date back a staggering 7 million years.
Focusing on dramatic new fossil finds and breakthrough advances in DNA research, Johanson provides the latest answers that post-Lucy paleoanthropologists are finding to questions such How did Homo sapiens evolve? When and where did our species originate? What separates hominids from the apes? What was the nature of Neandertal and modern human encounters? What mysteries about human evolution remain to be solved?
Donald Johanson is a passionate guide on an extraordinary journey from the ancient landscape of Hadar, Ethiopia–where Lucy was unearthed and where many other exciting fossil discoveries have since been made–to a seaside cave in South Africa that once sheltered early members of our own species, and many other significant sites. Thirty-five years after Lucy, Johanson continues to enthusiastically probe the origins of our species and what it means to be human.
In his New York Times bestseller, The Beginnings of Humankind, renowned paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson told the incredible story of his discovery of a partial female skeleton that revolutionized the study of human origins. Lucy literally changed our understanding of our world and who we come from. Since that dramatic find in 1974, there has been heated debate and–most important–more groundbreaking discoveries that have further transformed our understanding of when and how humans evolved.
In Lucy’s Legacy , Johanson takes readers on a fascinating tour of the last three decades of study–the most exciting period of paleoanthropologic investigation thus far. In that time, Johanson and his colleagues have uncovered a total of 363 specimens of Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy’s species, a transitional creature between apes and humans), spanning 400,000 years. As a result, we now have a unique fossil record of one branch of our family tree–that family being humanity–a tree that is believed to date back a staggering 7 million years.
Focusing on dramatic new fossil finds and breakthrough advances in DNA research, Johanson provides the latest answers that post-Lucy paleoanthropologists are finding to questions such How did Homo sapiens evolve? When and where did our species originate? What separates hominids from the apes? What was the nature of Neandertal and modern human encounters? What mysteries about human evolution remain to be solved?
Donald Johanson is a passionate guide on an extraordinary journey from the ancient landscape of Hadar, Ethiopia–where Lucy was unearthed and where many other exciting fossil discoveries have since been made–to a seaside cave in South Africa that once sheltered early members of our own species, and many other significant sites. Thirty-five years after Lucy, Johanson continues to enthusiastically probe the origins of our species and what it means to be human.
344 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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532 people want to read
About the author
Donald C. Johanson
13 books64 followersDonald Carl Johanson is an American paleoanthropologist. He is known for discovering the fossil of a female hominin australopithecine known as "Lucy" in the Afar Triangle region of Hadar, Ethiopia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
January 13, 2015
I enjoyed this book, but with a definite problem. The first 3 pages are a first person description by the author of how he discovered the fossil remains of Lucy, perhaps the most famous fossil in the world. The next 100 pages are then autobiographical about the author's background and training and reads like "my excellent adventure in Africa." This material had almost nothing to do with the science of paleoanthropology, which was my only reason for reading the book.
So I was skimming this personal history and travel story stuff at high speed and just about to give up on the whole thing, when suddenly at page 100 we got into the science. Things were fine after that.
I try to read a new book on our evolutionary descent about every 10-15 years to find out what new has been learned. I have been doing this for the last 60 years. Here we have a book 7 years old in which the author brings the reader up to date on the fossils and general understanding of how we evolved in Africa and migrated out to the rest of the world. Interestingly he mentions the beginning of efforts to extract DNA from Neanderthals and bets it will be found that they did not interbreed with our species. How wrong he was. You may know that it has since been found that we did interbreed with the Neanderthals before they died out, and "they were us."
So I was skimming this personal history and travel story stuff at high speed and just about to give up on the whole thing, when suddenly at page 100 we got into the science. Things were fine after that.
I try to read a new book on our evolutionary descent about every 10-15 years to find out what new has been learned. I have been doing this for the last 60 years. Here we have a book 7 years old in which the author brings the reader up to date on the fossils and general understanding of how we evolved in Africa and migrated out to the rest of the world. Interestingly he mentions the beginning of efforts to extract DNA from Neanderthals and bets it will be found that they did not interbreed with our species. How wrong he was. You may know that it has since been found that we did interbreed with the Neanderthals before they died out, and "they were us."
September 24, 2009
I am a big fan of Don Johanson's, and of his books Lucy and Lucy's Child. However, this one is very uneven. The first third, with its detailed descriptions of the difficulties of doing fieldwork in Ethiopia, seems like it was written for wholly political reasons that are largely irrelevant to the subject matter (advances in paleoanthropology over the last 35 years).
I understand that Dr. Johanson has to maintain a strong relationship with the Ethiopian gov't in order to continue his work, but I wish he could have found a way to do so and still keep the book light, swift-moving, and mass-market appropriate. I blame the ghost writer for that one.
(I did, however, get a kick out of all his descriptions of what he ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner -- obviously going back to his field notes for inspiration here.)
The summaries of the in-fighting amongst paleoanthropologists, and the summations of various published papers contradicting one another's findings, are also pretty dry for the recreational reader just trying to catch up on the broad strokes. But maybe it's just the era we live in now; dueling academic papers is nowhere near as exciting as dueling cosmologies (as Maitland Edey helps to describe them in the first Lucy book).
The good stuff comes in the last third of the book, when a few select competing theories are proposed and examined, and long-standing unsolved mysteries are explored. The chapter on Neanderthal is great, raising all the right questions: Were Neanderthals smarter than we think? Why did they die out? Did they interact with modern Homo sapiens? And possibly interbreed? (The answer: probably not. But it's fun knowing that scientists can't really say for sure.)
Another standout chapter -- the one on the Flores "hobbit". I defy anyone to read this and not let their imagination run amok, picturing a 12 inch tall pygmy human hunting giant komodo dragons. According to the book, it's not impossible -- ethnographic and folkloric evidence, including some collected by Darwin, points to the possibility that modern Homo sapiens could have overlapped in time with teeny tiny people (lending some credence to the possibility of trolls...).
Bottom line -- the book isn't as skillfully assembled as the first two, but it's still a good overview of the latest discoveries on the Homo family tree.
I understand that Dr. Johanson has to maintain a strong relationship with the Ethiopian gov't in order to continue his work, but I wish he could have found a way to do so and still keep the book light, swift-moving, and mass-market appropriate. I blame the ghost writer for that one.
(I did, however, get a kick out of all his descriptions of what he ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner -- obviously going back to his field notes for inspiration here.)
The summaries of the in-fighting amongst paleoanthropologists, and the summations of various published papers contradicting one another's findings, are also pretty dry for the recreational reader just trying to catch up on the broad strokes. But maybe it's just the era we live in now; dueling academic papers is nowhere near as exciting as dueling cosmologies (as Maitland Edey helps to describe them in the first Lucy book).
The good stuff comes in the last third of the book, when a few select competing theories are proposed and examined, and long-standing unsolved mysteries are explored. The chapter on Neanderthal is great, raising all the right questions: Were Neanderthals smarter than we think? Why did they die out? Did they interact with modern Homo sapiens? And possibly interbreed? (The answer: probably not. But it's fun knowing that scientists can't really say for sure.)
Another standout chapter -- the one on the Flores "hobbit". I defy anyone to read this and not let their imagination run amok, picturing a 12 inch tall pygmy human hunting giant komodo dragons. According to the book, it's not impossible -- ethnographic and folkloric evidence, including some collected by Darwin, points to the possibility that modern Homo sapiens could have overlapped in time with teeny tiny people (lending some credence to the possibility of trolls...).
Bottom line -- the book isn't as skillfully assembled as the first two, but it's still a good overview of the latest discoveries on the Homo family tree.
September 11, 2018
A survey of paleoanthropology centering around, but not limited to, Johanson's discovery of Lucy in the 1970s. Covers the long history of our understanding of human origins, emphasizing fieldwork, collaboration and cooperation. Covers milestones and controversies throughout that history up until the end of the 2000s. Some of it may be a bit dry to those not into the subject, but I found it all pretty fascinating. Presented competing interpretations of certain finds quite fairly.
August 18, 2025
Not quite as good as the first book LUCY The Beginnings of Humankind but it's a 5 star read nonetheless. And I look forward to continuing on in the series with the next book, FROM LUCY TO LANGUAGE.
Johanson signed this book to my brainy, beautiful, blasphemous bride Jana at the FFRF convention in Los Angeles, years ago.
Johanson signed this book to my brainy, beautiful, blasphemous bride Jana at the FFRF convention in Los Angeles, years ago.
October 4, 2018
Definitely want to read more of his work to get a better feel for his writing style. Something was kind of off but I still enjoyed the information. Will think on it for a bit. Full review to come.
November 20, 2020
I love Lucy. This sequel talks about Lucy and some of her hominid and australopithicene cousins, not to mention Neanderthals and H. floriensis, the hobbits of Indonesia. It is slightly dated in that the genetic study of human evolution has grown by leaps and bounds since the time this book was published; however, it remains a fresh and entertaining read.
March 13, 2023
I love nonfiction about human evolution 👏🏻 it was my favorite college class and continues to be my favorite nerdy thing to learn about
October 5, 2016
Trimming the Family Tree:
Where did we come from? How did we get here? Where are we going in the future? The are the questions that Paleoanthropologist hope to answer by studying the fossil remains of ancient Hominids and the plants and animals that shared their world for thousands, if not millions, of years. In 1974 co-author Donald C. Johanson made an astounding find in the badlands of Ethiopia: a fossil Hominid that showed some human characteristics and was more ancient than all previous finds. In "Lucy's Legacy" Dr. Johanson and co-author Kate Wong explore the implications of this paradigm changing fossil. In Part 1 Johanson reminiscences about finding Lucy and the problems he faced working in a foreign country, both political, personal, and environmental. Over several seasons Johanson and his team scoured Ethiopia's arid highlands for additional fossils but, though they were successful on that front, Lucy would remain their most important find. Beyond the field work comes the fossil preparation and intense research that can take years to complete. In addition to the hominids they found, the team would find numerous fossils of plants and animals that lived in the same time period. Those fossils would give the researchers an indication of Lucy's natural environment and competition. The authors finish out Part 1 by going over the research and their conclusions. They also speculate, based on their research, on how Lucy and her kin may have lived and what her homeland may have been like. The remainder of the book brings the reader up to speed on the current (as of 2009) theories of Human Origins. Paleoanthropology has always been fast changing field, filled with conflicting theories and clashing personalities. Convention has it that Africa is the birth place of Humanity but there are some specialists who think that Asia may be our homeland, and they have found some fossil evidence to support that idea. Who were Lucy's ancestors and when did the Australopithecines arise are two of the questions addressed. Also reviewed is the origin of Homo, when and why they left Africa and by what route. Especially interesting for me were the sections on the first Humans in Europe, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon. The mystery of The Hobbits of Flores is covered in detail. But with each new revelation comes new questions that require additional research and the ever going search for additional fossils. What does the future hold for practitioners of Paleoanthropology? According to Johanson and Wong it's a good time for students to be going into the field, there's more to learn and fossils yet to be found. "Lucy's Legacy" is a fascinating, well written book aimed primarily at the layman reader but appealing to other scientists as well. The book is illustrated with a Color Plate section, an African map of Key Hominid Sites and a chart of The Hominid Family Tree as understood in 2009. All in all this was an excellent read and one that I will be referring back to from time to time.
Last Ranger
Where did we come from? How did we get here? Where are we going in the future? The are the questions that Paleoanthropologist hope to answer by studying the fossil remains of ancient Hominids and the plants and animals that shared their world for thousands, if not millions, of years. In 1974 co-author Donald C. Johanson made an astounding find in the badlands of Ethiopia: a fossil Hominid that showed some human characteristics and was more ancient than all previous finds. In "Lucy's Legacy" Dr. Johanson and co-author Kate Wong explore the implications of this paradigm changing fossil. In Part 1 Johanson reminiscences about finding Lucy and the problems he faced working in a foreign country, both political, personal, and environmental. Over several seasons Johanson and his team scoured Ethiopia's arid highlands for additional fossils but, though they were successful on that front, Lucy would remain their most important find. Beyond the field work comes the fossil preparation and intense research that can take years to complete. In addition to the hominids they found, the team would find numerous fossils of plants and animals that lived in the same time period. Those fossils would give the researchers an indication of Lucy's natural environment and competition. The authors finish out Part 1 by going over the research and their conclusions. They also speculate, based on their research, on how Lucy and her kin may have lived and what her homeland may have been like. The remainder of the book brings the reader up to speed on the current (as of 2009) theories of Human Origins. Paleoanthropology has always been fast changing field, filled with conflicting theories and clashing personalities. Convention has it that Africa is the birth place of Humanity but there are some specialists who think that Asia may be our homeland, and they have found some fossil evidence to support that idea. Who were Lucy's ancestors and when did the Australopithecines arise are two of the questions addressed. Also reviewed is the origin of Homo, when and why they left Africa and by what route. Especially interesting for me were the sections on the first Humans in Europe, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon. The mystery of The Hobbits of Flores is covered in detail. But with each new revelation comes new questions that require additional research and the ever going search for additional fossils. What does the future hold for practitioners of Paleoanthropology? According to Johanson and Wong it's a good time for students to be going into the field, there's more to learn and fossils yet to be found. "Lucy's Legacy" is a fascinating, well written book aimed primarily at the layman reader but appealing to other scientists as well. The book is illustrated with a Color Plate section, an African map of Key Hominid Sites and a chart of The Hominid Family Tree as understood in 2009. All in all this was an excellent read and one that I will be referring back to from time to time.
Last Ranger
March 10, 2011
Johanson and Wong bring us up to date on the finds of Australopithecus fossils and associated artifacts. Johsnson does have an agenda, however. Since, in his first publications about Lucy, he claimed she was a predecessor to Homo sapiens, he proseletyzes that relationship here although he admits that others make a case for Homo habilis and erectus being of another branch to which Australopithecus is not ancestral. Aside from his plunking for an Australopithecus past for hominins, this is a very interesting update. Australopithecus was definitely bipedal, not arboreal. In fact, a 3,200,000 year old fossiil metatarsal bone has been found, clear proof of bipedalism. Metatarsals hinder tree climbing but eenhance walking.
Also, Austrslopithecus seems to have used very primitive tools
Also, Austrslopithecus seems to have used very primitive tools
April 28, 2009
Very slow start with lots of examples of the difficulty working in Ethipia. The last couple of sections adressing current controversies surrounding homo sapiens origins are more interesting. I may try another of his earlier books. The subject interests me but this was a slow go.
May 22, 2018
I enjoyed reading this book, the story of finding Lucy and all the hard work that went into it made this a thrilling read. Getting to know the progress that goes on behind the scenes of great discoveries like Lucy is exciting.
June 20, 2009
The more I understand Evolution the more it makes intelligent design irrelevant.
December 28, 2015
Love this book. Studied all this in college. I think 2015 was an anniversary for Lucy's discovery.
November 25, 2020
Thoroughly researched But
It was quite long and not the page turner that I expected.
Clearly the authors were very well educated in this field. The one annoying thing was every time - it seemed - they reached a conclusion they went to " ON THE OTHER HAND" . So for example, it seemed conclusive that hominids branches out from Chimps and Apes 28 Million years ago then he jumped to the school that argued it was perhaps more like 7-5 million years ago.
This is not their fault since science by its nature is not established by consensus. But as a casual reader and aficionado of paleoanthrpology its,quite frustrating.
Also the authors spend considerable time describing various discoveries. But, it would have been helpful to have visual representations of them . A picture is indeed worth a thousand words.
Finally, where are the Denisovans in our hominid history. Nothing was said about them though I was pleased to read the insights,on the Hobbit and Flores. Thank You
It was quite long and not the page turner that I expected.
Clearly the authors were very well educated in this field. The one annoying thing was every time - it seemed - they reached a conclusion they went to " ON THE OTHER HAND" . So for example, it seemed conclusive that hominids branches out from Chimps and Apes 28 Million years ago then he jumped to the school that argued it was perhaps more like 7-5 million years ago.
This is not their fault since science by its nature is not established by consensus. But as a casual reader and aficionado of paleoanthrpology its,quite frustrating.
Also the authors spend considerable time describing various discoveries. But, it would have been helpful to have visual representations of them . A picture is indeed worth a thousand words.
Finally, where are the Denisovans in our hominid history. Nothing was said about them though I was pleased to read the insights,on the Hobbit and Flores. Thank You
August 13, 2024
don goes through some startling jumps in style, from semiautobiographical to article/paper summarizing (quite well, i thought) all of human ancestor history up to homo sapiens apart from lucy, and then right into science journalism style writing. in the middle of chapters, too, which is really weird. i think he does best with his long history lessons, as the first part about discovering lucy and the following trips he made to sites in ethiopia, while interesting, wasn’t particularly well written and the dialogue seemed forced. super interesting subject and once again forcing me to consider whether or not i should drop everything and switch my major to anthropology (senior year starts in 22 days).
August 9, 2019
This book has made me very interested in paleoanthology and turned around my obselete thinking about our human origins. However, this is a growing field and every time a new hominid fossil is discovered and studied, new information is added to our thinking, often causing older proclamations to become suspect. I recommend this as a well written book revealing details about field and lab research, various hominids and their possible connections and the many questions still unanswered. But I need to look for more newly published works to answer some of my own questions.
June 21, 2021
When he was quite a young man, Donald Johanson found a 3.2 million year old skeleton in Hadar, Ethiopia. She was named "Lucy," after the Beatles song, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Since then he has made and/or documented other human skeletons found in Africa, the mid-East, and Asia. This tells the story of many of these finds. He is proud to announce the changes in the field of paleoanthropology both scientific and in the personnel, some of whom are his former students, who in the past would not have been educated or allowed to do more than the "grunt" work in this difficult field.
March 30, 2022
Every so often I get the urge to "challenge" my 71 year old brain!! This book fit the purpose. I've always had a fascination of where we came from. I remember reading about Louis and Mary Leaky and their discoveries, and Dr. Johanson's find of Lucy.
Dr. Johanson's narrative of the finds in Ethiopia of Lucy and subsequent remains of ancient humanoids was clearly written and not above anyone's understanding.
I highly recommend this to any who are curious about our Human ancestors.
Dr. Johanson's narrative of the finds in Ethiopia of Lucy and subsequent remains of ancient humanoids was clearly written and not above anyone's understanding.
I highly recommend this to any who are curious about our Human ancestors.
November 26, 2022
This work is a sort of memoir where the man that found the original Lucy skeletal remains recounts his adventures in finding and working in an unstable Ethiopia in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the evolution of how we view our ancestors. There are multiple topics of interest for readers. It has its moments, but not the greatest of reads. Perhaps for others it is the springboard book, but for me, it was “meh” and move along.
May 21, 2018
A lively account of the early years of making sense out of hominid fossils written by the discoverer or Lucy, the Australopithecus afarensi fossil in Ethiopia. Because the book was written before the decoding of nuclear DNA, it’s now very out of date. Nonetheless, it’s still a good read with its lively writing style and comparative perspective.
August 12, 2019
Reads like a travelogue. I especially enjoyed the chapter in which he talks about the logical speculations of possible Lucy's life and her world based on the fossile data ,Bonobo's and Chimp's social life. You might find the facts repetitive and banal if you have read or watched several documentaries on this topic. But still very exciting read.
May 30, 2018
Good but long
Discovering Lucy and the implications, and then other fossil hominid discoveries. The amazing thing is how much can be learned from so little. The unsurprising thing is the inter scientist rivalry.
Discovering Lucy and the implications, and then other fossil hominid discoveries. The amazing thing is how much can be learned from so little. The unsurprising thing is the inter scientist rivalry.
December 1, 2019
I loved this. The details about human origin, what we know, what we don't know and how we have reached our current conclusions was thorough but also was framed in a way where you felt connected to the scene.
April 21, 2021
Good read
Even while this subject is of considerable interest to me I kind of expected a dry, slow read but I have been pleasantly surprised. I have found this book to be extremely interesting and written in such a way as to be fully understandable and enlightening to we novices
Even while this subject is of considerable interest to me I kind of expected a dry, slow read but I have been pleasantly surprised. I have found this book to be extremely interesting and written in such a way as to be fully understandable and enlightening to we novices
June 3, 2018
A look into a different world. The complex world of paleoarchiology.
June 16, 2018
A bit dated and the first part was more of an autobiography but I found the last 2/3 to be a fast read.
May 22, 2020
Great follow up to Lucy
Lucy is one of my favorite books of all time. Opened my mind to all kinds thoughts on the origins of man. This book is an excellent follow up
Lucy is one of my favorite books of all time. Opened my mind to all kinds thoughts on the origins of man. This book is an excellent follow up
March 16, 2026
A wonderful book the is exactly what I was seeking on this subject. Easy to read and understand, it provide a thorough history of Lacy and the origins of our species.
September 29, 2024
THE LATEST BOOK BY THE FAMED PALEOANTHROPOLOGIST
Donald Carl Johanson (born 1943) is an American paleoanthropologist; he has also written 'Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind,' 'From Lucy to Language,' 'Ancestors: In Search of Human Origins,' and 'Lucy's Child: The Discovery of a Human Ancestor.' [NOTE: page numbers refer to the 309-page hardcover edition.]
He begins this 2009 book with a recounting of his team's most famous hominid discoveries: "Lucy" ("It was a special moment for all of us, though I don't think any of us truly realized how special at the time"; pg. 7) and the "First Family" ("Had I turned down Mike's request to join our expedition, the well-concealed teeth might not have been found"; pg. 18). He mentions his relations with Richard Leakey: "Friendly rivalry is at times a good things because it motivates us all to work a little harder, a little longer, and take chances we otherwise might not take"; pg. 15). He also describes himself as "a lifelong atheist." (Pg. 61).
Along the way, he explains some of his general principles, such as, "it's vital to be open to explanations that you never considered before. Often the theories that take you most by surprise turn out to be correct." (Pg. 97). He explains, "I am not a 'lumper' or a 'splitter' in any traditional sense." (Pg. 103) He states that A. afarensis (i.e., "Lucy") "occupied a basal position on the human family tree as the ancestor to all later hominids... all later species of hominids, including those of Australopithecus and Homo, could trace their origins back to afarensis... This phylogeny ... thus identifies A. afarensis as THE ancestral species to all later hominids." (Pg. 107-108)
He observes, "Below the disconformity in the Hadar formation we find only A. afarensis and no stone tools, whereas above the conformity A. afarensis is nowhere to be seen, and stone tools make an appearance along with the oldest known evidence of Homo... Something big happened during the missing 200,000 years. The paleoenvironment changed dramatically. A. afarensis vanished, and a new kind of hominid, Homo, took its place. What happened... is a mystery, but it sure looks like it might be related to the change from a wetter climate to a drier one." (Pg. 128)
He suggests, "There was a time when bipedalism was the defining characteristic of our lineage. But it may be that a subtler change---the transformation of the canine, for example---preceded that shift and is therefore the trait that first set us apart from our ape brethren... For my money... I am betting that bipedalism was the initial change that launched the human career." (Pg. 165)
He adds, "The formative slice of time between 2.5 and 3 million years ago is frustratingly incomplete at the moment. But when more fossil hominids are recovered... I am sure there will be many more surprises." (Pg. 179)
He summarizes, "In the early days ... the major goal was to find fossils, as if a particular specimen would somehow be the Rosetta Stone of human evolution. As more and more finds were made it became obvious that human evolution was much more complex than anyone had envisaged. Each precious fossil find was only a part of a much larger puzzle." (Pg. 271)
This book includes much more material on the possible interpretation of fossils than Johanson's earlier books (which sometimes focused too much on the "details" of the finds themselves), and will be of keen interest to anyone studying human origins. It is also a fitting "summation" of Johanson's life work.
Donald Carl Johanson (born 1943) is an American paleoanthropologist; he has also written 'Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind,' 'From Lucy to Language,' 'Ancestors: In Search of Human Origins,' and 'Lucy's Child: The Discovery of a Human Ancestor.' [NOTE: page numbers refer to the 309-page hardcover edition.]
He begins this 2009 book with a recounting of his team's most famous hominid discoveries: "Lucy" ("It was a special moment for all of us, though I don't think any of us truly realized how special at the time"; pg. 7) and the "First Family" ("Had I turned down Mike's request to join our expedition, the well-concealed teeth might not have been found"; pg. 18). He mentions his relations with Richard Leakey: "Friendly rivalry is at times a good things because it motivates us all to work a little harder, a little longer, and take chances we otherwise might not take"; pg. 15). He also describes himself as "a lifelong atheist." (Pg. 61).
Along the way, he explains some of his general principles, such as, "it's vital to be open to explanations that you never considered before. Often the theories that take you most by surprise turn out to be correct." (Pg. 97). He explains, "I am not a 'lumper' or a 'splitter' in any traditional sense." (Pg. 103) He states that A. afarensis (i.e., "Lucy") "occupied a basal position on the human family tree as the ancestor to all later hominids... all later species of hominids, including those of Australopithecus and Homo, could trace their origins back to afarensis... This phylogeny ... thus identifies A. afarensis as THE ancestral species to all later hominids." (Pg. 107-108)
He observes, "Below the disconformity in the Hadar formation we find only A. afarensis and no stone tools, whereas above the conformity A. afarensis is nowhere to be seen, and stone tools make an appearance along with the oldest known evidence of Homo... Something big happened during the missing 200,000 years. The paleoenvironment changed dramatically. A. afarensis vanished, and a new kind of hominid, Homo, took its place. What happened... is a mystery, but it sure looks like it might be related to the change from a wetter climate to a drier one." (Pg. 128)
He suggests, "There was a time when bipedalism was the defining characteristic of our lineage. But it may be that a subtler change---the transformation of the canine, for example---preceded that shift and is therefore the trait that first set us apart from our ape brethren... For my money... I am betting that bipedalism was the initial change that launched the human career." (Pg. 165)
He adds, "The formative slice of time between 2.5 and 3 million years ago is frustratingly incomplete at the moment. But when more fossil hominids are recovered... I am sure there will be many more surprises." (Pg. 179)
He summarizes, "In the early days ... the major goal was to find fossils, as if a particular specimen would somehow be the Rosetta Stone of human evolution. As more and more finds were made it became obvious that human evolution was much more complex than anyone had envisaged. Each precious fossil find was only a part of a much larger puzzle." (Pg. 271)
This book includes much more material on the possible interpretation of fossils than Johanson's earlier books (which sometimes focused too much on the "details" of the finds themselves), and will be of keen interest to anyone studying human origins. It is also a fitting "summation" of Johanson's life work.
September 25, 2015
Donald Johanson was the leader of the expedition that discovered “Lucy”, perhaps the most famous hominid fossil in the world. I have read books of his before, but it has been quite a few years, so who knows, perhaps my memory is faulty. My impression, subjective as it is, nonetheless must be said for this to be an honest review: this guy is not nearly so arrogant as he used to be.
I mean, I enjoyed his writing when I read his books in the past (otherwise why would I have bought another one), but I recall always getting the impression that Johanson was possessed of more than just a healthy self-esteem. I don't doubt that an ability to bash through life convinced that you are correct, and entitled to the lead, is a useful trait in many fields of work, and probably paleoanthropology is one of them. Nonetheless, when reading previous books I often thought something like, “wow, this guy tells a good story, and I'm so glad I'll never meet him, he sounds like a self-centered egotist”.
Somehow, either because I have changed or because he has, he does not seem at all that way in Lucy's Legacy. He tells the story of his career, and the field generally, going back to the time he found Lucy, and following it right up to the present day, a period of over 30 years now. He is careful to give credit to others, often points out where he was wrong, and is generous when describing the points of view of rivals in the field with whom he has disagreements.
He also has a good story to tell. In addition to what happened several million years ago in east Africa, he tells us a good deal about what has happened in the last four decades in the same area. The region in which he works has seen alternating periods of war and peace, and has also gone from bewildered tolerance of the funny western researchers because they have money, to producing their own homegrown paleoanthropology community. Johanson tells us how the politics and logistics of undertaking first-world science in some of the poorest parts of the third world can require more than just academic ingenuity.
I mean, I enjoyed his writing when I read his books in the past (otherwise why would I have bought another one), but I recall always getting the impression that Johanson was possessed of more than just a healthy self-esteem. I don't doubt that an ability to bash through life convinced that you are correct, and entitled to the lead, is a useful trait in many fields of work, and probably paleoanthropology is one of them. Nonetheless, when reading previous books I often thought something like, “wow, this guy tells a good story, and I'm so glad I'll never meet him, he sounds like a self-centered egotist”.
Somehow, either because I have changed or because he has, he does not seem at all that way in Lucy's Legacy. He tells the story of his career, and the field generally, going back to the time he found Lucy, and following it right up to the present day, a period of over 30 years now. He is careful to give credit to others, often points out where he was wrong, and is generous when describing the points of view of rivals in the field with whom he has disagreements.
He also has a good story to tell. In addition to what happened several million years ago in east Africa, he tells us a good deal about what has happened in the last four decades in the same area. The region in which he works has seen alternating periods of war and peace, and has also gone from bewildered tolerance of the funny western researchers because they have money, to producing their own homegrown paleoanthropology community. Johanson tells us how the politics and logistics of undertaking first-world science in some of the poorest parts of the third world can require more than just academic ingenuity.
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