Donald Johanson reflects on his fossil discovery that shook the human family tree a half century ago.
Lucy’s discovery has been making ripples in the world of paleoanthropology for half a century. Lucy had a small brain, not much larger than a chimpanzee’s, but nonetheless walked upright, suggesting that an upright posture, rather than an increase in brain size, was the first step toward becoming human. The discovery “re-draws the human family tree,” as Johanson has put it, noting that Lucy’s descendants may include not only our own genus, Homo, but also other human groups that have died off.
Read the full interview at Nautiuls.