| View Larger Image | Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins | Hardcoverby Dr. Donald Johanson (Author), Kate Wong (Author)
| List Price: | $25.00 | | Price: | $16.50 | | You Save: | $8.50 (34%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Harmony | | Page Count: | 320 Pages | | Publication Date: | March 03, 2009 | | Sales Rank: | 68,564th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780307396396
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
“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 LegacyIn his New York Times bestseller, Lucy: 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 as: 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. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 15 reviews)
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A Pleasure by A. Coster  5 Stars
November 02, 2009
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.
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Readable as a novel, scientific as a Doctoral Thesis by augustus 5 Stars
October 03, 2009
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.
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An Odd little book by Michael A. Schumann (Bloomington, Illinois United States)  4 Stars
September 07, 2009
This is an odd admixture of memoir, travelogue, and a general survey of the state of the field. It is an uncomplicated read but I was a bit put off by the needless repetition of points and anecdotes. It seems almost as if the co-authors never compared notes or the editor was asleep on the job.
I tend to think of this book as a sort of "color commentary" on the current state of Human Origins fieldwork.
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Suprised at my misconceptions! by Ian J. Mccarty (Portland, ME USA) 5 Stars
June 08, 2009
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.
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Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins by Sharie (Alpharetta, GA USA) 5 Stars
April 22, 2009
Being an archaeology buff and also as someone interested in anthropology, I really enjoyed a personal perspective on this compelling topic of man's earliest origins.
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