Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins
By Donald C. Johanson and Kate Wong
Harmony Books, $25, 320 pages
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
