Blade and Bone The Discovery of Human Antiquity Exhibition Opening March 29,2012 An Interview with Donald Johanson President's Message * j^H Dear Friends, Paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson gained worldwide fame in 1974 with his discovery of a 3.2-million-year-old As the Linda Hall Library concludes its species of Australopithecine at the Hadar excavation site 65th anniversary year, all that remains is to thank you for making The Year of in Ethiopia. He named his discovery, a partial skeleton Innovation a success. Our talented staff of an adult female, Lucy. Johanson classified Lucy assembled imaginative and thought- Australopithecus afarensis, a new species in the hominid provoking events emphasizing the breadth and depth family tree that forever changed our understanding of of the Library's holdings and the historical impact that human origins. science and technology has had during the past 500 years. These events conveyed the belief that an understanding Johanson will speak at the Linda Hall Library on April of science and its history is a useful commodity in today s 24 at 7 p.m. as part of the Relatively Human lecture complex world. Your attendance and enthusiam for the series. In early January, he spoke with Eric Ward, Director subject matter was overwhelming. of Public Programming, about Lucy and the field of paleoanthropology. Our anniversary year concluded with the Library's Annual Fund campaign. Each campaign gift reminded Eric Ward: What was Lucy's significance in 1974, and us that the Linda Hall Library is surrounded by a what's been her most lasting contribution to the field community of supporters who share the Library's of paleoanthropology? goal of collecting, maintaining, and making available for research and scholarship one of the world's finest Donald Johanson: Lucy, Australopithecus aferensis, drew collections devoted to science, engineering, technology, the two major lines of evolution together on the human and their histories. Equally important, your gifts helped family tree. The one line that led to a sort of ape-men raise public awareness of the impact that science has called Australopithicus... to earliest homo... It means upon our lives and the world we inhabit. Your generosity that this was a species that was generalized enough to this year was exceptional. The Annual Fund campaign be a common ancestor to all the later hominids... [Also], was our most successful ever. a large part of the diagnosis and understanding of the most recent species that have been announced, such The Library's 66th year begins with intriguing new as Ardipithecus ramidus, which I will talk about a little bit programs that will examine the origins of humankind, in my lecture, came through comparative anatomical retrace the route of the Transcontinental Railroad, and studies with Lucy's species. So afarensis has become a explore the concept of time. We will also welcome our benchmark for judging the more recent fossils that have first class of resident fellows under our revised fellowship been discovered in that early time range. I think that is program. Fellowship recipients will spend from one to her enduring importance. nine months in residence, using the Library's holdings to support advanced research projects. Each fellow will offer a public program discussing some aspect of his or There is nothing that surpasses the moment her research projects. of discovery.. .The great reward for me was that I was the guy, the individual, who As the year begins, we re-dedicate ourselves to looked down at the ground and saw the maintaining the Library's stature as a premiere research center for science, engineering and technology, and as first bone of Lucy and said, "there it is." a destination for vibrant programs that advance our Donald Johanson understanding of these subjects. Please join us. EW: What do we know today about the afarensis Sincerely, species? Lisa Browar President DJ: We know an enormous amount about the anatomy of the species because we have bones from virtually every part of the skeleton: hands, feet, arms, legs, pelvis, thorax, skull. We know there is significant fact that extinction, the Grim Reaper of evolution, comes difference in body size between males and females. along and does begin to winnow out species, and that is We know that the foot was very much designed something that we all have to be aware and cognizant of as like our own foot. It had a strong longitudinal and we look at ourselves as a species. transverse arch to the foot, and these arches are very important in maintaining the integrity of the foot and EW: You're off to Ethiopia next week. How do recent also in providing some propulsive force for our bipedal advances in laboratory research complement the work walking. that you're doing in the field? EW: You mentioned the recent announcement of DJ: We tend to be discovery-centric. We think that the the discovery of Ardipithecus ramidus. How does field is discovery driven, that we're going to find a Rosetta this species fit into the family tree? stone that is going to reveal everything. But, as we make these discoveries, we're beginning to find out with modern DJ: There is a great deal of discussion right now as to techniques and technology...that it's new analytical whether or not A ramidus was an ancestor to later techniques, both on the genetic side as well as in the area of Australopithicus. There are some scholars, including scanning and understanding function and biomechanics, myself, who have some doubt that this was a direct that are revealing to us a host of new information about our ancestor to Australopithicus. It may ancestors and about those creatures very well have been one of those that went extinct... So, I thinkthat there quite interesting evolutionary is a very important balance between sidelines that suggest that perhaps field work and lab work. early human ancestors adapted in several different ways—only one of EW: The potential for making the big which ultimately led to us. find has to be incredibly motivating. EW: Much like the Hobbits, Homo DJ: There is nothing that surpasses floresiensis, that were discovered in the moment of discovery. Most Flores, Indonesia in 2003. anthropologists who are involved in this field are working on discoveries made DJ: Exactly. The Hobbits certainly by other people, which is fine. They are not an ancestor to us because are sometimes called the consumers, they existed alongsideofusfora very and we're called the producers. Very long time in isolation in Southeast rarely does someone in the field make Asia. So stepping back and looking the big discovery themselves. The great at the family tree, we see that it had reward for me was that I was the guy, many more branches than we had anticipated when I the individual, who looked down at the ground and saw the first announced Lucy way back in the early 1970s. There first bone of Lucy and said,"there it is." And that's something weren't a lot of species on the human family tree (I will that has really stuck with me over the years. show an illustration of this during my lecture), yet today there are many, many more. EW: And you were just out of graduate school, right? EW: What does that mean for human evolution? DJ: I was 31 years old and I didn't know what hit me. It was one of those things: don't wish for something, it might DJ: There are some people who still look at human come true. And here it was, and all of a sudden I had an evolution as a straight line, that there are ancestors enormous responsibility to make sure whatever was done and descendants, and the descendants are all on the with this was done correctly, and that I would assemble way to us. And what the Hobbits and Neanderthals and a team that would work closely on it and bear the specialized robust Australopithicus creatures show us responsibility of dealing with it. So, it was a huge reward. is that just because you can walk upright, just because At the same time, an enormous amount of responsibility. you can make tools, just because you have big brains, doesn't mean that you are necessarily an ancestor EW: Thank you for your time. We're looking forward to to modern humans. It tells us something about the your lecture. curated the Library's spring exhibition. In it he documents Spring Programs the discovery and acceptance of human antiquity by displaying the books and journals in which major revelations were announced. Thursday, February 23,7 p.m. "Several discoveries in the 1830s and 1840s suggested 10th Annual Paul D. Bartlett, Sr. Lecture to some that humans were ancient, although many such Primate Psychology and Monkeynomics claims were almost universally rejected. It wasn't until Laurie Santos, Director, Comparative Cognition 1859," Ashworth says, "that the scientific world did a rapid Laboratory, Yale University about-face." Can the collapse of the world The discovery that year of human tools, found alongside financial markets be explained in extinct animal remains in a cave at Brixham, England, part by human evolutionary history? caused archaeologists to take another look at previous Are human economic decisions, evidence for human antiquity. By 1870, the discoveries both rational and irrational, of Neanderthal (1856) and Engis (1833) had been re- determined as much by nature as by evaluated and accepted as genuine, and new finds had Hintellect? Psychology professor Laurie Santos delves been made at Cro-Magnon cave (1868) in southern into questions about human economic behavior and France.