Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins

by Donald C. Johanson and Kate Wong

Book Overview

"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, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind, renowned paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson told the incredible story of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307396401
• ISBN13: 9780307396402
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.7" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Pleasure

A great read and a good primer for what has been discovered over the last few years. I just wish that Tim White had published his findings on Ardi before Don wrote this book. I would like to read his take on it. I was in college in the early 70's and I must say that just about every course I ever took could be taught the same way today. Basic Chemistry, Math, English, etc. will never change. However, the course I took in Prehistory turns out to be at least 50% wrong! How delightful. They have discovered so much more since that time and there is so much more to be discovered. I wonder what that course will look like 100 years from now. Maybe 50% is wrong now. But it's fun to watch. My only disappointment was the number of photographs in the book. There was room for many more. Read this book, continue your education, and stay tuned. There is so much more to come.

Readable as a novel, scientific as a Doctoral Thesis

I was very pleased to read this book. The level of information is extraordinary, very precise and inviting to keep on reading. The book is structured according to the superb experience of the author. It is my opinion that students as well as professionals in the field, will delightfully enjoy this reading. It covers, with awsome details, one of the most important finds in human history. Lucy is an icon in modern anthropology, which at the same time changed the previous orthodox criteria on human evolution. I strongly recommend this book.

Suprised at my misconceptions!

This book was a pleasant surprise. I enjoy reading about the sciences yet I had neglected a topic that has everything to do about me and us, from which all things human flow. This book is both a memoir and an informative update, but more, a reality check as this subject has been so badly misconstrued while rightly turned on its head by amazing new discoveries. Johanson's adventures are a good read and keep things exciting, but this book is not just about Lucy; each chapter serves as a great overview of important topics in human evolution. I was surprised at just how riveted I became, both humbled and elevated with my place on Earth.

Take a Trip Back to the Dawn of Humanity

Donald C. Johanson, author of //Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind//, and winner of the American Book Award, was also the founder of the Institute of Human Origins. His first book tells the tale of how in 1974, while walking back to his car along a barren stretch of Ethiopia, he spotted something bone-like in the ground. Lucy, better known as //Australopithecus afarensis//, became a great archaeological find of our times. In //Lucy's Legacy//, Johanson continues telling Lucy's story, discussing some of the 363 specimens that were discovered over the succeeding decades. Divided into parts; the first part, "Lucy," covers his work since the 1974 discovery. In "Lucy's Ancestors," Johanson takes readers on a journey and discussion of the different hominid lines from the primeval ape up to //Australopithecus afarensis//. In "Lucy's Descendants," he talks about the various hominid lines after Lucy, with Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, and most importantly, Homo sapiens. Johanson even reserves a chapter for the important Homo floresiensis, better known as the "hobbit," leaving it up to the reader to decide whether the "hobbit" really was a separate hominid line, or just an individual anomaly. To help readers along, the inside cover of the book features a clearly laid out Hominid Family Tree, creating an easy to follow map. //Lucy's Legacy// is a fascinating new book with important updates on the ancestry of humanity. This is a book everyone should read as it answers the all important question: Where did we come from? Reviewed by Alex C. Telander

Fascinating, compelling, highly readable!!

Once again, Dr. Johanson has written a book for those of us with a passion for human evolution, but not a PhD in it! Lucy's Legacy is an exciting, suspenseful, action-packed adventure that goes behind the scenes... here for the first time we learn what really happens before - and after - an important discovery is made. Some of it isn't pretty! Also includes up-to-date information about all the latest finds, amazing photographs, and a ton of delicious personal anecdotes.