In the years since this dramatic discovery Johanson has continued to scour East Africa's Great rift Valley for the earliest evidence of human origins. In 1975 this team unearthed the "First Family", an unparalleled fossil assemblage of 13 individuals dating back to 3.2 million years ago; and in 1986 at the Rift's most famous location, Olduvai Gorge, this same team discovered a 1.8 million-year-old partial adult skeleton that necessitated a reassessment of the earliest members of our own genus Homo.

Johanson's fieldwork continues unabated and recently more fossil members of Lucy's family have been found, including the 1992 discovery of the oldest, most complete skull of her species, with future research now planned for 1996 in the virtually unexplored regions of the most northern extension of the Rift Valley in Eritrea.

From Lucy to Language is a summing up of this remarkable career and a stunning documentary of human life through time on Earth. It is a combination of the vital experience of field work and the intellectual rigor of primary research. It is the fusion of two great writing talents: Johanson and Blake Edgar, an accomplished science writer, editor of the California Academy of Sciences' Pacific Discovery, and co-author of Johanson's last book, Ancestors.

From Lucy to Language is one of the greatest stories ever told, bracketing the timeline between bipedalism and human language. Part I addresses the central issues facing anyone seeking to decipher the mystery of human origins. In this section the authors provide answers to the basics — "What are our closest living relatives?" — tackle the controversial — "What is race?" — and contemplate the imponderables — "Why did consciousness evolve?"

From Lucy to Language is an encounter with the evidence. Early human fossils are hunted, discovered, identified, excavated, collected, preserved, labeled, cleaned, reconstructed, drawn, fondled, photographed, cast, compared, measured, revered, pondered, published, and argued over endlessly. Fossils like Lucy have become a talisman of sorts, promising to reveal the deepest secrets of our existence. In Part II the authors profile over fifty of the most significant early human fossils ever found. Each specimen is displayed in color and at actual size, most of them in multiple views. With them the authors present the cultural accoutrements associated with the fossils: stone tools which evidence increasing sophistication over time, the earliest stone, clay, and ivory art objects, and the culminating achievement of the dawn of human consciousness — the magnificent rock and cave paintings of Europe, Africa, Australia, and the Americas.

In the end From Lucy to Language is a reminder and a challenge. Like no species before us, we now seem poised to control vast parts of the planet and its life. We possess the power to influence, if not govern, evolution. For that reason, we must not forget our link to the natural world and our debt to natural selection. We need to "think deep", to add a dose of geologic time and evolutionary history to our perspective of who we are, where we came from, and where we are headed. This is the most poignant lesson this book has to offer.

PART 1

Central Issues of Paleoanthropology

WHAT IS A HUMAN?

1. The Human Creature

2. The Quest for Origins

3. Is Human Evolution Different?

EVIDENCE

4. The Science of Paleoanthropology

5. The Early Human Fossil Record

6. Discovering Early Human Fossil Sites

7. Recovering the Remains of Early Humans

8. Dating Fossils and Artifacts

9. Climate and Human Evolution

10. Teeth

11. Proteins, DNA, and Human Evolution

12. Why is Paleoanthropology So Contentious?

ANCESTORS

13. Our Closest Living Relatives

14. The Last Common Ancestor of Apes and Humans

15. Drawing the Human Family Tree

LINEAGES

16. African Genesis

17. Early vs. Modern Humans

18. Eve, and Adam

19. The Earliest Fossil Evidence of Anatomically Modern Humans

MIGRATION

20. Out of Africa

21. The First Americans

22. Peopling the Globe

DIVERSITY

23. Defining Human Species

24. Co-Existing Human Species

25. Human Diversity Today

26. What Is Race?

ANATOMY

27. The Size of Early Humans

28. Sexual Dimorphism

29. Gestation

30. Maturation

31. Evolution of the Human Brain

32. Reconstructing the Appearance of Early Humans

SOCIETY

32. Primate Societies and Early Human Social Behavior

BIPEDALISM

34. Evidence for Bipedalism

35. The Origins of Bipedalism

TOOLS

36. The Oldest Stone Tools

CUSTOMS

37. Hunters, Gatherers, or Scavengers?

38. Diet

39. Cannibalism

40. Fire

41. Shelter

42. Clothing

CULTURE

43. Burial

44. Art

45. The Origins of Language

IMPONDERABLES

46. The Problem of Consciousness

47. Will Humans Become Extinct?

48. Place of Humans in Nature

PART 2

Encountering the Evidence

Ardipithecus ramidus, ARA-VP-6/129, Juvenile Partial mandible

AUSTRALOPITHECINES

Australopithecus anamensis, KNM-KP 29281, Adult mandible

Australopithecus afarensis

Australopithecus afarensis, A.L. 288-1, Lucy, Partial adult skeleton

Australopithecus afarensis, A.L. 333, Fragments of thirteen individuals

Australopithecus afarensis, A.L. 444-2, Adult cranium

Australopithecus afarensis, A.L. 129-1a+1b, Adult female knee joint

Australopithecus afarensis, L.H. 4, Adult mandible / Fossil hominid footprints

Australopithecus africanus

Australopithecus africanus, Sts 5, Mrs. Ples, Adult cranium

Australopithecus africanus, Sts 14, Partial adult skeleton

Australopithecus africanus, Sts 71 and Sts 36, Adult cranium and mandible

Australopithecus africanus, Taung Child, Juvenile skull

Australopithecus africanus, TM 1517, Adult partial cranium and mandible

Australopithecus sp., Stw 252, Adult cranium

Australopithecus robustus

Australopithecus robustus, SK 6, Adolescent mandible / SK 48, Adult cranium / SK 48, Adult cranium / SK 79, Adult cranium

Australopithecus aethiopicus

Australopithecus aethiopicus, KNM-WT 17000, Black Skull, Adult cranium

Australopithecus boisei

Australopithecus boisei, OH 5, Zinj, Adult cranium

Australopithecus boisei, KNM-ER 406, Adult male cranium / KNM-ER 732, Adult female cranium

HOMO

Homo sp., A.L. 666-1, Adult maxilla

Homo habilis

Homo habilis, OH 7, Juvenile male partial skeleton

Homo habilis, OH 24, Adult female cranium

Homo habilis, KNM-ER 1813, Adult cranium

Homo habilis, OH 62, Partial adult skeleton

Homo rudolfensis

Homo rudolfensis, KNM-ER 1470, Adult cranium

Homo ergaster

Homo ergaster, KNM-ER 3733, Adult cranium

Homo ergaster, KNM-WT 1500, Juvenile male skeleton

Homo ergaster, SK 847, Partial adult cranium

Homo erectus

Homo erectus, Trinil 2, Java Man, Adult partial cranium

Homo erectus, Peking Man, Adult skull reconstruction

Homo erectus, Sangiran 17, Adult male cranium

Homo heidelbergensis

Homo heidelbergensis, Bodo cranium, Adult cranium

Homo heidelbergensis, Mauer 1, Adult mandible

Homo heidelbergensis, Arago XXI, Adult cranium

Homo heidelbergensis, Petralona 1, Adult cranium

Homo heidelbergensis, Streinheim, Adult female cranium

Homo heidelbergensis, Atapuerca 5, Adult skull

Homo heidelbergensis, Broken Hill 1, Adult cranium

Homo neanderthalensis

Homo neanderthalensis, Krapina C, Adult female partial cranium

Homo neanderthalensis, Saccopastore I, Adult female cranium

Homo neanderthalensis, Teshik-Tash, Juvenile partial skeleton

Homo neanderthalensis, Kebara 2, Adult male skeleton

Homo neanderthalensis, Amud 1, Adult male skeleton

Homo neanderthalensis, Amud 7, Partial infant skeleton

Homo neanderthalensis, La Chapelle-aux-Saints, Adult male skeleton

Homo neanderthalensis, La Ferrassie 1, Adult male skeleton

Homo neanderthalensis, Neandertal 1, Adult calotte

Homo neanderthalensis, Gibraltar 1, Adult female cranium

Homo neanderthalensis, Saint-Césaire, Partial adult skeleton

Homo sapiens

Homo sapient, Dali, Adult male cranium

Homo sapiens, Omo I and Omo II, Partial adult skeleton and cranium

Homo sapiens, Qafzeh IX, Adult female skeleton

Homo sapiens, Skhul V, Adult male skeleton

Homo sapiens, Cro-Magnon I, Adult male skeleton

Homo sapiens, Kow Swamp 1, Adult male skeleton

PALEOLITHIC TECHNOLOGY

Oldowan tools

Acheulean tools

Mousterian tools

Upper Paleolithic

APPENDIX 1: TYPE SPECIMENS FOR HOMINID SPECIES

APPENDIX 2: HOMINID FOSSIL AND ARCHEOLOGICAL

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

SELECTED REFERENCES

INDEX