From Lucy to Language

No serious student of paleoanthropology can afford to miss this magnificent, encyclopedic survey of human origins. It combines a lucid, meticulous text by noted American paleontologist Johanson (well known for his discovery of Lucy, a 3.2-million-year-old hominid skeleton from Ethiopia) and freelancer Edgar with more than 200 stunning color photographs of fossils, artifacts and prehistoric art by National Geographic chief staff photographer Brill. The book's first half succinctly yet comprehensively explores dozens of issues and controversies, among them our genetic similarity to our closest living relatives, African apes; what early humans looked like; Homo's probable beginnings in Africa and migrations therefrom; and the latest evidence regarding hominid lifestyles, diet, shelter, art, burial practices. The second half contains arguably the fullest systematic survey to date for the nonspecialist of fossil hominids, ranging from the earliest such find, in 1921, to the most recent specimens from Kenya and Ethiopia, unearthed in 1994-95 and dated to more than four million years. Johanson forcefully argues that race is a superficial cultural construct without any solid genetic basis, and he theorizes that language, a survival mechanism that evolved through natural selection, is intimately linked to our brain's evolution. (Nov.)