Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind

A Behind-the-scenes Account Of The Shocking Discovery Of The Skeleton Of Ardi, A Human Ancestor Far Older Than Lucy - A Find That Shook The World Of Paleoanthropology And Radically Altered Our Understanding Of Human Evolution. In 1994, A Team Led By Fossil-hunting Legend Tim White--the Steve Jobs Of Paleoanthropology--uncovered The Bones Of A Human Ancestor In Ethiopia's Afar Region. Radiometric Dating Of Nearby Rocks Indicated The Skeleton, Classified As Ardipithecus Ramidus, Was 4.4 Million Years Old, More Than A Million Years Older Than Lucy, Then The Oldest Known Human Ancestor. The Findings Challenged Many Assumptions About Human Evolution--how We Started Walking Upright, How We Evolved Our Nimble Hands, And, Most Significantly, Whether We Were Descended From An Ancestor That Resembled Today's Chimpanzee--and Repudiated A Half-century Of Paleoanthropological Orthodoxy. Fossil Men Is The First Full-length Exploration Of Ardi, The Fossil Men Who Found Her, And Her Impact On What We Know About The Origins Of The Human Species. It Is A Scientific Detective Story Played Out In Anatomy And The Natural History Of The Human Body. Kermit Pattison Brings Into Focus A Cast Of Eccentric, Obsessive Scientists, Including One Of The World's Greatest Fossil Hunters, Tim White--an Exacting And Unforgiving Fossil Hunter Whose Virtuoso Skills In The Field Were Matched Only By His Propensity For Making Enemies; Gen Suwa, A Japanese Savant Who Sometimes Didn't Bother Going Home At Night To Devote More Hours To Science; Owen Lovejoy, A Onetime Creationist-turned-paleoanthropologist; Berhane Asfaw, Who Survived Imprisonment And Torture To Become Ethiopia's Most Senior Paleoanthropologist And Who Fought For African Scientists To Gain Equal Footing In The Study Of Human Origins; And The Leakeys, For Decades The Most Famous Family In Paleoanthropology. An Intriguing Tale Of Scientific Discovery, Obsession And Rivalry That Moves From The Sun-baked Desert Of Africa And A Nation Caught In A Brutal Civil War, To Modern High-tech Labs And Academic Lecture Halls, Fossil Men Is Popular Science At Its Best, And A Must Read For Fans Of Jared Diamond, Richard Dawkins, And Edward O. Wilson.