Teaser: By Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey, Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.25 x 9.25 x 6.14; illustrations: 15 color, 81 b/w, Publisher: Touchstone Books; ISBN: 0671724991; Reissue edition (September 1990), List Price: $15.00
The 1974 unearthing of a 3.2 million year old fossilized partial skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis by Don Johanson and his team in a remote corner of Ethiopia has turned out to be one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century. It's hard to imagine that Johanson and the others involved in this discovery could have at the time imagined how profoundly the skeleton of this diminutive early human, affectionately nicknamed "Lucy", would change our understanding of what it means to be human and, as an aside, change their own personal lives forever.
While other early human fossils that are older and even more complete have been discovered since, she remains the benchmark against which all of them are measured. Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind is a finely wrought tale of paradigm shifting science in the making.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Peter Nevraumont
Peter N. Nevraumont is publisher of Nevraumont Publishing Company where he has produced books by many prominent scientists, including Donald Johanson, Niles Eldredge, Ian Tattersall, Lynn Margulis, and R. McNeill Alexander.
Prior to that he was a reporter for Women's Wear Daily (now W), an editor at Macmillan Publishing, Managing Editor of the Columbia University Forum, an assistant producer at Universal Pictures, National Director of Advertising and Promotion at Films Incorporated, and Vice President at Ruby Street.
Peter lives in the Wall Street area of New York with his wife, Ann Perrini.