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Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins

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California Academy of Sciences

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Partner:: California Academy of Sciences
Location:: California Academy of Sciences
San Francisco, CA
Event Date:: 05.09.11
Speaker:: Donald C. Johanson
Tags:: Museums; research; science; california academy of sciences; paleoanthropology; lucy; australopithecus; evolution

Summary: Professor Donald Johanson, founding director of The Institute of Human Origins (IHO) at Arizona State University, discovered the 3.2 million year old hominid skeleton popularly known as "Lucy" (Australopithecus afarensis) in Ethiopia in 1974. She has become an icon in this field of study and remains an important touchstone for scholars and lay-people alike for understanding our beginnings. This famous discovery forever changed our understanding of human origins.

Dr. Johanson's talk focuses on how paleoanthropological field work over the last 30 years has established the continent of Africa as the crucible for human evolution.

Bio

Donald C. Johanson

Donald C. Johanson is the director of the Institute of Human Origins. For the past 30 years he has conducted field and laboratory research in paleoanthropology. Most notably, he discovered the 3.18 million year old hominid skeleton popularly known as "Lucy." Through grants from the National Science Foundation, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation and the National Geographic Society, Johanson has carried out field research in Ethiopia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Tanzania. He is an Honorary Board Member of the Explorers Club, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a member of many other professional organizations and recipient of several international prizes and awards. In 1975, Dr. Johanson was appointed curator of physical anthropology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and, beginning in 1976, developed a laboratory of physical anthropology that attracted scholars from all over the world.

He has written, among other books, the widely read Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind (with Maitland Edey) in 1991, and numerous scientific and popular articles. In 1994, he co-wrote Ancestors: In Search of Human Origins and narrated a companion NOVA television series seen by more than 100 million people worldwide. He has also published From Lucy to Language (with Blake Edgar, principal photography by David Brill), 1996, and most recently, Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins (with Kate Wong), 2009. Johanson is a frequent lecturer at universities and other forums in the United States and abroad.

Chapters

: Watch Full Program

01 hr 13 min 29 sec

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01.: Introduction

06 min 50 sec

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02.: Opening Remarks

05 min 32 sec

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03.: The Origins of the Theory of Human Evolution

02 min 30 sec

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04.: Similarities Between Humans and Apes

02 min 37 sec

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05.: The Path of Human Evolution

02 min 47 sec

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06.: Tracing Human Origins to Africa

04 min 49 sec

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07.: Paleoanthropological Hotbeds

02 min 29 sec

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08.: The Anatomy of a Paleoanthropological Expedition

03 min 53 sec

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09.: Knowing Where to Look

01 min 40 sec

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10.: Reconstructing Prehistoric Landscapes

01 min 36 sec

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11.: Discovering 'Lucy'

02 min 53 sec

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12.: Reconstructing Lucy

03 min 41 sec

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13.: Lessons Learned About Australopithecus

04 min 20 sec

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14.: Lucy's Popularity in Ethiopia

03 min 17 sec

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15.: Australopithecus' Place in Human History

03 min 19 sec

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16.: Current Understanding of Australopithecus

02 min 43 sec

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17.: The Discovery of Ardipithecus Ramidus

05 min 21 sec

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18.: Continued Inquiry into the Origins of Humanity

04 min 13 sec

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19.: Q & A

00 min 09 sec

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20.: Q1: Lucy's Current Location

01 min 08 sec

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21.: Q2: Was Lucy Arboreal?

00 min 45 sec

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22.: Q3: The Challenges of Reconstructing an Individual Specimen

02 min 15 sec

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23.: Q4: Evolutionary Changes to the Canine Teeth

01 min 43 sec

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24.: Q5: Looking for Fossils Outside of Africa

03 min 01 sec

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: Watch Full Program

01 hr 13 min 29 sec

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Donald Johanson Recalls How 'Lucy' Got Her Name

03 min 55 sec

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Professor Donald Johanson, the paleoanthropologist responsible for unearthing the first known remains of Australopithecus afarensis, describes how his discovery ended up with the name "Lucy." Johanson explains that what started out as an off-the-cuff suggestion, ended up securing the fossil a place in popular culture.
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01 hr 13 min 29 sec

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Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins

Encyclopædia Britannica Articles

Lucy: Nickname for a remarkably complete (40% intact) hominin skeleton found by Donald Johanson at Hadar, Eth., in 1974 and dated to 3.2 million years ago. The specimen is usually classified as Australopithecus afarensis and suggests—by having long arms, short legs, an apelike chest and jaw, and a small brain but a relatively humanlike pelvis—that bipedal locomotion preceded the development of a larger (more humanlike) brain in hominin evolution. Lucy stood about 3 ft 7 in. (109 cm) tall and weighed about 60 lbs (27 kg). See also Hadar remains; Laetoli footprints; Sterkfontein.; Lucy on britannica.com
philosophical anthropology: Study of human nature conducted by the methods of philosophy. It is concerned with questions such as the status of human beings in the universe, the purpose or meaning of human life, and whether humanity can be made an object of systematic study. Among the most important works in philosophical anthropology is Being and Time (1929), by Martin Heidegger.; philosophical anthropology on britannica.com

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C_Grego

Posted: 12.29.11, 04:44 PM

I believe in the out of Africa hypothesis, but not in the widely accepted migration path of our species that can not explain 15,000 year old settlements in the eastern US or 25,000+ year old settlements in east-central Brazil. Clovis Point is a late comer to the western hemisphere. Grego http://SurfaceEarth.com/