#72 – Origin and evolution of … humans (part I)

The anthropologist who discovered “Lucy” answers many of our questions on human evolution.

The cosmic egg has exploded and produced a universe full of stars, planets, and basic chemicals (episodes #64 and 65). Out of those basic building blocks, life began to appear on earth, from which all kinds of species started evolving (episodes #66, 70 and 71).  Now we’re at a point in this story when species with the potential to exhibit agape love are just coming into view: humans.

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Donald Johanson, the anthropologist who discovered “Lucy” almost 5 decades ago.  He’s examined bones from almost every hominid ancestor that anthropologists have discovered.  If you want to know about human evolution, he’s definitely the one to talk to.

We learned quite a bit about the hominid species represented by “Lucy”, and how she fit into the overall hominid family tree, including relatives like H. habilis and H. erectus, as well as more recent ancestors like H. heidelbergensis, Neanderthals and Denisovans (yes, these are ancestors … many of us carry some of their genes).

He also helped us understand why fossils … especially hominid fossils … are so rare: they only form under very specific and exceptional conditions in areas that are not prone to geological disruptions (like erosion, earthquakes, volcanoes).

We also began to look at a recent major development in anthropological research.  Someone had the brilliant idea of digging deep into certain of the ancient hominid bones they discovered and pulling out organic material … including the DNA of that hominid!  Now, we’re building up a whole genetic database of our distant evolutionary cousins and unpacking the details of how our species diverged from theirs as well as that of the apes. More on that next week.

As always, tell us what you think …

To find more about Dr. Donald Johanson, go to his faculty page.

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