ASHLAND, Ore. (PRWEB)
November 08, 2019

To mark the 45th year anniversary of the discovery of the most famous hominid fossil in the world, “Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind” is being released as an audiobook narrated by the author and her discoverer, Dr. Donald Johanson.

One of the most accomplished scholars of human origins, Johanson has produced some of the field’s most groundbreaking discoveries, including the most widely known and thoroughly studied fossil of the 20th century, the 3.2-million-year-old “Lucy” skeleton.

The 20th century was peppered with important early-human fossil finds, but Johanson’s 1974 discovery in Ethiopia that added a crucial link, prompting major revisions in our understanding of human evolution. “Lucy” possesses an intriguing mixture of ape-like features ( a projecting face and small brain) but also characteristics we consider human, such as upright walking, marking an important step on the path to Homo sapiens.

In the early 1970s the remote region of Ethiopia known as the Afar Triangle was terra incognita and its potential for illuminating our evolutionary past was unrecognized. In spite of the desolate and hostile nature of the area Johanson, with meager funding led an expedition to a site known as Hadar and began to unearth a treasure trove of fossils, including Lucy, that walked the planet some 3 to 4 million years ago. So revolutionary were these discoveries that the entire story of how we became human required substantial revision. Now some 45 years later we know more details of the vital picture of how humans came to be, but the general outlines of the human family tree proposed by Johanson’s early work continue to form the core of that story.

Johanson is committed to sharing and explaining his scientific discoveries to the general public. His efforts in this have reached across multiple media—including television, books, and his award-winning science website http://www.becominghuman.org, in addition to lecturing at universities, corporations, and public forums. Johanson is the founding director of the internationally respected Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University and is available for interview.

The audiobook is published through Blackstone Publishing, one of the largest independent audiobook publishers in the U.S., and can be purchased at Audible.

Learn More About Johanson:

• 
  He is an honorary board member of the Explorers Club, and was awarded their highest honor, the Explorers Club Medal in 2010.
• He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
• He is a distinguished member of the Siena Academy of Sciences in Italy.
• He is the recipient of the American Book Award in Science 1981: Johanson, D.C. and M. A. Edey. 1981. Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind. New York: Simon and Schuster
• He received a Webby Award in 2002 for best science web site: http://www.becominghuman.org
• Johanson also serves as the Virginia M. Ullman Chair in Human Origins at Arizona State University, where he teaches
• Johanson frequently lectures and leads tours for the National Geographic Society.

Co-author of 9 books his most recent books are:

Johanson, D.C. and Kate Wong. March 2009. Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. New York: Harmony Press.

Johanson, D.C. and B. Edgar. 2006. From Lucy to Language. New York: Simon and Schuster; 2nd Edition.

Some web sites:

TIME Interview

Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins

Donald Johanson 1991 Academy of Achievement Award

“We cannot fully grasp who we are and where we are headed as a species until we have a more complete knowledge of our evolutionary roots.” – Donald C. Johanson – paleoanthropologist

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