Donald Carl Johanson is an American
paleoanthropologistPaleoanthropology, which combines the disciplines of paleontology and physical anthropology, is the study of ancient humans as found in fossil hominid evidence such as petrifacted bones and footprints.-19th century:...
. Along with
Maurice TaiebMaurice Taieb, is a French geologist and paleoanthropologist who discovered the Hadar formation, recognised its potential importance to paleoanthropology and founded the International Afar Research Expedition...
, and
Yves CoppensYves Coppens is a French anthropologist. He graduated from the University of Rennes. He has studied ancient hominids and has had multiple published works on this topic, and has also produced a film....
he is known for the discovery of the skeleton of the female
hominidThe Hominidae or include them .), as the term is used here, form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees , gorillas , humans , and orangutans ....
australopithecineThe term australopithecine refers generally to any species in the related genera Australopithecus or Paranthropus. These species occurred in the Plio-Pleistocene era, and were bipedal and dentally similar to humans, but with a brain size not much larger than modern apes, lacking the...
known as "
LucyLucy is the common name of AL 288-1, several hundred pieces of bone representing about 40% of the skeleton of an individual Australopithecus afarensis. The specimen was discovered in 1974 at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression. Lucy is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years...
", in the Afar Triangle region of
Hadar, EthiopiaHadar is a village in Ethiopia, on the southern edge of the Afar Triangle with a latitude and longitude of approximately . The village is known for the nearby archaeological site....
.
Early years
Johanson was born in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
,
IllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and earned his
bachelor's degreeA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignThe University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
in 1966. He earned his
master's degreeA master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in 1970 and his
PhDPHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in 1974 from the
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. At the time of the discovery of Lucy, he was an assistant and associate professor of anthropology at
Case Western Reserve UniversityCase Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
. Johanson also holds an honorary doctorate from
Case Western Reserve UniversityCase Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
. In 1981, he established the Institute of Human Origins in
Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
which he later moved to
Arizona State UniversityArizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
in 1998. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Westfield State College in 2008.
"Lucy"
Lucy was discovered in
Hadar, EthiopiaHadar is a village in Ethiopia, on the southern edge of the Afar Triangle with a latitude and longitude of approximately . The village is known for the nearby archaeological site....
on November 24, 1974, when Johanson, coaxed away from his paperwork by graduate student Tom Gray for a spur-of-the-moment survey, caught the glint of a white fossilized bone out of the corner of his eye, and recognized it as hominid. Forty percent of the skeleton was eventually recovered, and later described as the first known member of
Australopithecus afarensisAustralopithecus afarensis is an extinct hominid that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. A. afarensis was slenderly built, like the younger Australopithecus africanus. It is thought that A...
. Dr. Johanson suggested she be named "Lucy" after the Beatles' song "
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is a song written primarily by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney, for The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band...
" which was played repeatedly during the night of the discovery. A biped, Lucy stood about three and a half feet tall, and added support to Raymond Dart's theory that
australopithecinesAustralopithecus is a genus of hominids that is now extinct. From the evidence gathered by palaeontologists and archaeologists, it appears that the Australopithecus genus evolved in eastern Africa around 4 million years ago before spreading throughout the continent and eventually becoming extinct...
walked upright. Johanson and his team were also able to deduce from Lucy's ribs that she was vegetarian, and from her curved finger bones that she was probably at home in trees. Lucy herself was not at once recognized as a disparate species, but was considered an older member of
Australopithecus africanusAustralopithecus africanus was an early hominid, an australopithecine, who lived between 2–3 million years ago in the Pliocene. In common with the older Australopithecus afarensis, A. africanus was slenderly built, or gracile, and was thought to have been a direct ancestor of modern humans. Fossil...
, and only the later discovery of skulls of
A. afarensis convinced the general palaeontological world that Lucy represents a species called
afarensis.
"First Family"
AL 333AL 333, commonly referred to as the "First Family", is a collection of prehistoric hominid teeth and bones. Discovered in 1975 by Donald Johanson's team in Hadar, Ethiopia, the “First Family” is estimated to be about 3.2 million years old and consists of the remains of at least thirteen...
, commonly referred to as the "First Family," is a collection of prehistoric hominid teeth and bones that were also discovered in Hadar, Ethiopia, by Johanson's team in 1975. Generally thought to be members of the species
Australopithecus afarensisAustralopithecus afarensis is an extinct hominid that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. A. afarensis was slenderly built, like the younger Australopithecus africanus. It is thought that A...
, they are estimated to be about 3.2 million years old and consist of the remains of at least thirteen individuals.
See also
- Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct hominid that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. A. afarensis was slenderly built, like the younger Australopithecus africanus. It is thought that A...
- List of fossil sites (with link directory)
- List of hominina (hominid) fossils (with images)
- Multi-regional origin
- Single-origin hypothesis
External links