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

"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 full-length 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 comefrom? In 1994, a team led by fossil-hunting legend Tim White uncovered a set ofancient bones in Ethiopia's Afar region.
Radiometric dating of nearby rocks indicated theresulting skeleton, classified as Ardipithecus ramidus-nicknamed"Ardi"-was an astounding 4.4 million years old, more than a million years olderthan the world-famous "Lucy." The team spent the next 15 years studying thebones in strict secrecy, all while continuing to rack up landmark fossildiscoveries in the field and becoming increasingly ensnared in bitter disputeswith scientific peers and Ethiopian bureaucrats.
When finally revealed to thepublic, Ardi stunned scientists around the world and challenged a half-centuryof orthodoxy about human evolution-how we started walking upright, how weevolved our nimble hands, and, most significantly, whether we were descendedfrom an ancestor that resembled today's chimpanzee. But the discovery of Ardi wasn't just a leap forward inunderstanding the roots of humanity--it was an attack on scientific conventionand the leading authorities of human origins, triggering an epic feud about theoldest family skeleton.
In Fossil Men, acclaimed journalist Kermit Pattison brings usa cast of eccentric, obsessive scientists, including White, an uncompromisingperfectionist whose virtuoso skills in the field were matched only by hispropensity for making enemies; Gen Suwa, a Japanese savant whose deep expertiseabout teeth rivaled anyone onEarth; Owen Lovejoy, a onetime creationist-turned-paleoanthropologist withradical insights into human locomotion; Berhane Asfaw, who survivedimprisonment and torture to become Ethiopia's most senior paleoanthropologist; Don Johanson, the discoverer of Lucy, who had a rancorous falling out with the Ardi team; andthe Leakeys, for decades the most famous family in paleoanthropology.
Based on a half-decade of research in Africa, Europe and North America, Fossil Men is not only a brilliant investigation into theorigins of the human lineage, but the oldest of human emotions: curiosity, jealousy, perseverance and wonder.