Ancestors
Subtitle
In Search of Human Origins
Recounts the world-famous paleoanthropologist's attempts to solve the mystery of human evolution, using evidence uncovered during his recent forays into the fossil-rich regions of Eastern Africa.
This copiously illustrated companion to a PBS TV Nova series stands on its own as an exciting, balanced survey of raging controversies in the study of human origins. Paleoanthropologist Johanson, famed for his 1974 discovery of "Lucy," an Ethiopian hominid fossil, takes readers to Australia to assess significant new fossil evidence supporting the "multiregional model," which holds that modern humans arose in various parts of the world over the last million years — as opposed to the rival "Out of Africa" model, which posits Africa as the single geographical source for our species.
Writing in the first person in collaboration with his scientist-filmmaker wife, Lenora, and science writer Edgar, Johanson re-creates field expeditions and interviews scientists as he scrutinizes such questions as why hominids bothered to walk erect and whether Neanderthals coexisted (and interbred) with Homo sapiens.
Bio
Donald C. Johanson is a renowned paleoanthropologist, founding director of the Institute of Human Origins, and Virginia M. Ullman Chair in Human Origins in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. He discovered the fossil skeleton popularly known as “Lucy” and has written nine books and numerous scientific and popular articles. He lectures in the U.S. and abroad.
