Donald Johanson
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Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943) is an American paleoanthropologist. He is well known for his discovery of the skeleton of a 3.18 million year old female hominid australopithecine, in the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia. The 40% complete skeleton was discovered November 30, 1974 while on an anthropological mission funded in part by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, of which he was the curator. The skeleton was dubbed "Lucy". The name was coined because the Beatles song "Lucy in the sky with Diamonds" was playing over and over the night she was discovered. Lucy was remarkably complete, with a large number of bones preserved. Lucy stands only three and one half feet tall. Dr. Johanson was extremely lucky in finding Lucy as well because the site Lucy was found on had already been excavated and he was only back at the site because he was showing someone else where the site was located. Dr. Johanson established the Institute of Human Origins, in Berkeley, California in 1981. Johanson and the Institute moved to Arizona State University in 1998.
Johanson earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1966. He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1974.
Bibliography
- Johanson, Donald and Maitland Edey (1981) Lucy: The Beginnings of Human Evolution. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671250361
- Johanson, Donald and James Shreeve (1989) Lucy's Child: The Discovery of a Human Ancestor. London: Viking. ISBN 0670833665
- Johanson, Donald and Blake Edgar (1996) From Lucy to Language. New York: Siemens & Schuster. ISBN 0684810239
See also
External links
- [Bio: Dr. Donald C. Johanson]
- Donald Johanson. [Origins of Modern Humans: Multiregional or Out of Africa? (2001)]
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