{"product_id":"kermit-pattison-fossil-men-9780062410290","title":"Fossil Men","description":"\"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 Tribune A 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 Lucy It is the ultimate mystery: where do we come\n\u003cbr\u003e\nfrom? In 1994, a team led by fossil-hunting legend Tim White uncovered a set of\n\u003cbr\u003e\nancient bones in Ethiopia’s Afar region. Radiometric dating of nearby rocks indicated the\n\u003cbr\u003e\nresulting skeleton, classified as Ardipithecus ramidus—nicknamed\n\u003cbr\u003e\n“Ardi”—was an astounding 4.4 million years old, more than a million years older\n\u003cbr\u003e\nthan the world-famous “Lucy.” The team spent the next 15 years studying the\n\u003cbr\u003e\nbones in strict secrecy, all while continuing to rack up landmark fossil\n\u003cbr\u003e\ndiscoveries in the field and becoming increasingly ensnared in bitter disputes\n\u003cbr\u003e\nwith scientific peers and Ethiopian bureaucrats. When finally revealed to the\n\u003cbr\u003e\npublic, Ardi stunned scientists around the world and challenged a half-century\n\u003cbr\u003e\nof orthodoxy about human evolution—how we started walking upright, how we\n\u003cbr\u003e\nevolved our nimble hands, and, most significantly, whether we were descended\n\u003cbr\u003e\nfrom an ancestor that resembled today’s chimpanzee. But the discovery of Ardi wasn’t just a leap forward in\n\u003cbr\u003e\nunderstanding the roots of humanity--it was an attack on scientific convention\n\u003cbr\u003e\nand the leading authorities of human origins, triggering an epic feud about the\n\u003cbr\u003e\noldest family skeleton. In Fossil Men, acclaimed journalist Kermit Pattison brings us\n\u003cbr\u003e\na cast of eccentric, obsessive scientists, including White, an uncompromising\n\u003cbr\u003e\nperfectionist whose virtuoso skills in the field were matched only by his\n\u003cbr\u003e\npropensity for making enemies; Gen Suwa, a Japanese savant whose deep expertise\n\u003cbr\u003e\nabout teeth rivaled anyone on\n\u003cbr\u003e\nEarth; Owen Lovejoy, a onetime creationist-turned-paleoanthropologist with\n\u003cbr\u003e\nradical insights into human locomotion; Berhane Asfaw, who survived\n\u003cbr\u003e\nimprisonment and torture to become Ethiopia’s most senior paleoanthropologist; Don Johanson,\n\u003cbr\u003e\nthe discoverer of Lucy, who had a rancorous falling out with the Ardi team; and\n\u003cbr\u003e\nthe Leakeys, for decades the most famous family in paleoanthropology. Based on a half-decade of research in Africa,\n\u003cbr\u003e\nEurope and North America, Fossil Men is not only a brilliant investigation into the\n\u003cbr\u003e\norigins of the human lineage, but the oldest of human emotions: curiosity,\n\u003cbr\u003e\njealousy, perseverance and wonder. ","brand":"HarperCollins","offers":[{"title":"Used - good","offer_id":53415533969750,"sku":"9780062410290-G","price":5.59,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"Used - very good","offer_id":53465044320598,"sku":"9780062410290-V","price":6.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0925\/5829\/5382\/files\/product_image_9780062410290_1.jpg?v=1778191330","url":"https:\/\/www.momoxbooks.com\/products\/kermit-pattison-fossil-men-9780062410290","provider":"momoxbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}