Lucy Long Ago: Uncovering the Mystery of Where We Came From - Hardcover

Thimmesh, Catherine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0547051999 ISBN 13: 9780547051994

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2009

Synopsis

Illustrated in full color throughout with stunning compuer-generated artwork and with rare paleo photography, this story of scientific sleuthing invites us to wonder what our ancestors were like. From the discovery of Lucy's bones in Hadar, Ethiopia, to the process of recovering and interpreting them (a multidisciplinary approach with contributions from paleontologists, paleoanthropologists, archeologists, geologists and geochronologists), this book shows how a pile of 47 bones led scientists to discover a new -- and, at 3.2 million years old, a very very old -- species of hominid, ancestral to humans.

Scientists involved include: James Aronson, geochronologist at Dartmouth, NH John Gurche, paleoartist at Cornell, NY Donald Johansen, scientist at Institue of Human Origins at Arizona State University Owen Lovejoy, biological anthropologist at Kent State, Ohio Dirk Van Tuerenhout at Houston's Museum of Natural Science, Texas.

About this title

About the Author:

Catherine Thimmesh is the award-winning author of many books for children, including Girls Think of Everything and Team Moon, winner of the Sibert Medal. Her books have received numerous starred reviews, appeared on best books lists, and won many awards, including the IRA Children's Book Award and Minnesota Book Award. She lives in Minnesota with her family. www.catherinethimmesh.com. 

From School Library Journal:

Starred Review. Grade 5-10–The Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was playing the night paleoanthropologist Donald Johnson found the first fossilized remains of the hominid that became known around the world as Lucy. This extraordinary discovery changed how scientists understood one of the basic concepts of human evolution–it proved that our ancestors began walking upright before the size of their brains increased. Thimmesh uses this discovery to explore several topics in the fields of anthropology and evolutional biology, such as how the bones were fossilized, the process for deciding that Lucy belonged to a previously unknown species (Australopithecus afarensis), and the cast-making process that allowed biological anthropologist Owen Lovejoy to reconstruct her pelvis and prove that she was bipedal. The author even touches upon what fossils can't teach us about our ancestors–their emotions and family patterns. The final chapter discusses the process used by paleoartist John Gurche to create a life-size sculpture of Lucy. The book's greatest strength is how it underscores the fluidity of our understanding in a field like anthropology; it shows how one discovery can change the thinking of scientists in a dramatic way. This book also emphasizes the rigor of the sciences that study our human ancestors and explains clearly how these scientists carefully take the known to formulate new ideas about the unknown parts of our human history. The clear writing, excellent photographs, and the unique approach of exploring the field of anthropology through one spectacular specimen make this book a first purchase.–Caroline Tesauro, Radford Public Library, VA
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About this edition

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0547051999
• ISBN 13: 9780547051994
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 64