From Lucy To Language

Rating:
Summary: An excellent visual catalogue
Review: "From Lucy to Language" is an excellent books for those interested in the origins of human evolution. The photos are excellent and create an accurate portrayal of the specimens themselves. Johansen is an excellent pop writer; he creates and excellent overview of each speicmens, although you'll have to get past his nauseatingly pretentious writing style.

If you are looking for a more in depth, academic work, this is not the book to read, but if you are interested in the field, and just want something quick and pretty, this is the book to get. Also makes a great coffee table book.

Rating:
Summary: Good organization. Lucidly written. A great visual guide.
Review: (...)

Donald Johanson's "From Lucy to Language" is most certainly a long awaited book on hominid evolution. Any amateur interested in human evolution would welcome this edition. "From Lucy to Language" is an oversized hardcover book containing a wealth of visual information depicting fossilizes skeletal fragments of all known (up until 1995-1996) hominid species.

The book is divided into two distinct parts. As you can see from the contents preview that Amazon provides, the first part deals with different aspects of human evolution such as climate, recovery and categorization of remains, human migration, use of fire, art, burial, symbolic thinking, and other interesting topics related to paleoanthropology. The second part contains information on every hominid species. Dr. Johanson pays a special attention (locality, age, discoverer, date, place of publication and brief description) to specimens that represent a particular genus and species. At the end of the book readers will find information on different tool industries beginning with Oldowan tool industry (2.4 million years to 1.5 million years ago) then moving on to Acheulean (first appearance 1.4 million years ago), Mousterian, and Upper Paleolithic industries (Gravettian, Aurignation, Magdalenian). I was surprised to see Johanson omitting so many other industries (such as Solutrean). All in all he only allocated 12 pages to depiction and describtion of artifacts and tools.

Cladogram and phylogenetic tree found on page 38 needs modifications to account for a number of new hominids that were found after 1996. As some on you may already know there was sort of a gap in the fossil record between 5 and 10 millions years. The gap is beginning to fill up slowly but surely. An update to this edition is needed. I searched around for anything that might be fresher than 1996 but there is really not much choice.

Conclusively, I think Johanson produced a marvelous piece of literature. Students in high schools and college undergraduates writing reports and papers may find this book especially useful as a reference. Print quality is one of the highest I have seen in a while ("Printed in Italy" as the book states but watch out because you may leave a great deal of oily finger prints after holding pages). Good organization, lucidly written.

Rating:
Summary: wonderful introduction to paleoanthropology
Review: Donald Johanson's most famous discovery was Lucy, a proto-human female barely a meter tall and among the first hominids to walk upright (about 3.5 million years ago). This trait distingusihed her from her knuckle-walking cousins, the great apes, though she shared their smallish brain. This irrefutably proved that human ancestors had the ability to use their hands before developing the large brains that made abstract thinking possible.

THis is just one of the fascinating hypotheses that this explorer-scientist relates in this book for general audiences. Paleoanthropologists use the tools of geology and evolutionary biology to study human origins, an approach that has yielded an explosion of discoveries and new techniques that are described in detail. The authors also present the findings beyond the terrain of paleoanthropology, in such disciplines as microbiology, in which the existence of a genetic "Eve" was calculated, the single common ancestor of all humans of 100,000 years ago.

THe authors also tackle such thorny issues as the million year gaps in the fossile record, whether there is such a thing as race, and whether our brain size makes humans unique in the transmission of cultural learning. Among the book's highlights are the stunning photos by David Brill, a specialist in human fossil photography. Many of them depict life size skulls, which evoke the mystery of who we are as they stare back form the page.

Although too narrowly focused to become a best seller, this book is a masterpiece of popular science writing that requires no special training to understand.

Rating:
Summary: wonderful introduction to paleoanthropology
Review: Donald Johanson's most famous discovery was Lucy, a proto-human female barely a meter tall and among the first hominids to walk upright (about 3.5 million years ago). This trait distingusihed her from her knuckle-walking cousins, the great apes, though she shared their smallish brain. This irrefutably proved that human ancestors had the ability to use their hands before developing the large brains that made abstract thinking possible.

THis is just one of the fascinating hypotheses that this explorer-scientist relates in this book for general audiences. Paleoanthropologists use the tools of geology and evolutionary biology to study human origins, an approach that has yielded an explosion of discoveries and new techniques that are described in detail. The authors also present the findings beyond the terrain of paleoanthropology, in such disciplines as microbiology, in which the existence of a genetic "Eve" was calculated, the single common ancestor of all humans of 100,000 years ago.

THe authors also tackle such thorny issues as the million year gaps in the fossile record, whether there is such a thing as race, and whether our brain size makes humans unique in the transmission of cultural learning. Among the book's highlights are the stunning photos by David Brill, a specialist in human fossil photography. Many of them depict life size skulls, which evoke the mystery of who we are as they stare back form the page.

Although too narrowly focused to become a best seller, this book is a masterpiece of popular science writing that requires no special training to understand.

Rating:
Summary: A definate must have
Review: I borrowed this book for my Anthropology exams and I loved it. I had just the kind of information I needed and not just the badly drawn illustrations that my text book provided. I especially loved the fact that all plates are full size, and all the descriptions are generous. A good combination of Laymans terms and Anthropology.

Rating:
Summary: Great for just about anybody...
Review: If you want a solid, detailed book about the search for mankind's origins this is it. The first part of the book deals with the science of paleoanthropology, the nuts and bolts of how it works, from dating fossils, firepits and artifacts to studying past climates. The book also reveals to us the debates within society about where humans came from and what it means to be human. Will the answers change the way we think about ourselves and how what we will do in the future?
The second part shows us the evidence - bones. Skulls, teeth, fingers. In clear photos, many of them actual size so we can see for ourselves what the text is telling us. It ends with a couple of pages on stone tools and their development.
The two authors did their best to make the book complete BUT they also did not talk down to the reader. They don't assume you know everything, but they don't assume you're a fossil hunter either. For pros or beginners alike.

Rating:
Summary: Great for just about anybody...
Review: If you want a solid, detailed book about the search for mankind's origins this is it. The first part of the book deals with the science of paleoanthropology, the nuts and bolts of how it works, from dating fossils, firepits and artifacts to studying past climates. The book also reveals to us the debates within society about where humans came from and what it means to be human. Will the answers change the way we think about ourselves and how what we will do in the future?
The second part shows us the evidence - bones. Skulls, teeth, fingers. In clear photos, many of them actual size so we can see for ourselves what the text is telling us. It ends with a couple of pages on stone tools and their development.
The two authors did their best to make the book complete BUT they also did not talk down to the reader. They don't assume you know everything, but they don't assume you're a fossil hunter either. For pros or beginners alike.

Rating:
Summary: Life-sized photos....
Review: It's about time - a book focusing on the PHOTOS of fossilized hominids. Most books on human evolution entertain us with page after page of text. This book features picture after picture of life-sized hominid fossils. It does contain text - very well written and discusses the fossils at length - a wonderful piece of work - it deserves six stars...

Rating:
Summary: Life-sized photos....
Review: It's about time - a book focusing on the PHOTOS of fossilized hominids. Most books on human evolution entertain us with page after page of text. This book features picture after picture of life-sized hominid fossils. It does contain text - very well written and discusses the fossils at length - a wonderful piece of work - it deserves six stars...

Rating:
Summary: Awesome pictures, but really a coffee table book
Review: This book is really more of a coffe table book if it were not for the great full colored photos and list of references in the back. The text gives a good general overview of anthropology and human evolution, but still it seems like a coffee table book. The pictures are invaluable however.