Title
Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind
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Riveting. ... Pattison s uncanny ability [is] to write evocatively about science. ... In this, he is every bit as good as the best scientist writers. New York Times Book Review (Editors Choice) Brilliant. ... A work of staggering depth. Minneapolis Star TribuneA decade in the making, Fossil Men is a scientific detective story played out in anatomy and the natural history of the human body: the first fulllength account of the discovery of a startlingly unpredicted human ancestor more than a million years older than LucyIt is the ultimate mystery: where do we come from? In 1994, a team led by fossilhunting legend Tim White uncovered a set of ancient bones in Ethiopias Afar region. Radiometric dating of nearby rocks indicated the resulting skeleton, classified as Ardipithecus ramidusnicknamed Ardiwas an astounding 4.4 million years old, more than a million years older than the worldfamous Lucy. The team spent the next 15 years studying the bones in strict secrecy, all while continuing to rack up landmark fossil discoveries in the field and becoming increasingly ensnared in bitter disputes with scientific peers and Ethiopian bureaucrats. When finally revealed to the public, Ardi stunned scientists around the world and challenged a halfcentury of orthodoxy about human evolutionhow we started walking upright, how we evolved our nimble hands, and, most significantly, whether we were descended from an ancestor that resembled todays chimpanzee. But the discovery of Ardi wasnt just a leap forward in understanding the roots of humanityit was an attack on scientific convention and the leading authorities of human origins, triggering an epic feud about the oldest family skeleton.In Fossil Men, acclaimed journalist Kermit Pattison brings us a cast of eccentric, obsessive scientists, including White, an uncompromising perfectionist whose virtuoso skills in the field were matched only by his propensity for making enemies; Gen Suwa, a Japanese savant whose deep expertise about teeth rivaled anyone on Earth; Owen Lovejoy, a onetime creationistturnedpaleoanthropologist with radical insights into human locomotion; Berhane Asfaw, who survived imprisonment and torture to become Ethiopias most senior paleoanthropologist; Don Johanson, the discoverer of Lucy, who had a rancorous falling out with the Ardi team; and the Leakeys, for decades the most famous family in paleoanthropology.Based on a halfdecade of research in Africa, Europe and North America, Fossil Men is not only a brilliant investigation into the origins of the human lineage, but the oldest of human emotions: curiosity, jealousy, perseverance and wonder.
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