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Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind

Kermit Pattison

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Book Club 2021

August 2021 - Hacking Darwin
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last updated Jun 30, 2023 11:21AM

December 2021 - Calling Bullshit
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last updated Jan 17, 2022 01:43AM

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What Members Thought

Oct 03, 2021 David Rubenstein rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: anthropology, audiobook, archaeology, biography, evolution, paleontology

This fascinating book is about paleoanthropologist Tim White, and his team's discovery of Ardi--short for Ardipithecus ramidus. Tim White had a reputation--a pretty bad reputation, actually--of being a very blunt, salty, arrogant scientist. But he was the most learned, obsessive, meticulous, aggressive, and far-seeing scientist of his time. He really and truly "knew his stuff".

Every year during the 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's, Tim White participated in or led an expedition to East Africa. At fir This fascinating book is about paleoanthropologist Tim White, and his team's discovery of Ardi--short for Ardipithecus ramidus. Tim White had a reputation--a pretty bad reputation, actually--of being a very blunt, salty, arrogant scientist. But he was the most learned, obsessive, meticulous, aggressive, and far-seeing scientist of his time. He really and truly "knew his stuff".

Every year during the 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's, Tim White participated in or led an expedition to East Africa. At first he worked with Richard Leakey in Kenya, and then worked primarily in Ethiopia. He searched for fossils of early hominids; the ancestors of modern humans. This was not easy work. First, he had to obtain grant money to fund the expeditions and research. Then he had to go through a maze of bureaucrats in Ethiopia to get permission to search in a certain area. This could take months or even years, as Ethiopia went through political turmoil. Then, after finally getting all set up, he would take a caravan of vehicles on a several-day trip through the desert. He went through the homelands of various warring tribes, and sometimes had to dodge bullets and deal with gun-crazy people!

White found the remains of Ardi, a 4.4-million year old set of fossils that predated the bones of "Lucy". He began studying the fossil remains for many years. He was meticulous, and documented every nuance and detail from his very incomplete collection of fossil bones. He deduced that Ardi was bipedal--she was an upright walker--even though she could also grab onto tree branches. White deduced from multiple clues, that modern humans are more closely related to Ardi than to modern apes. When he finally published his findings, the scientific community was aghast. They just did not believe White--they didn't want to believe him! The scientific community criticized White--perhaps just as much because of White's personality, as his paradigm-shifting views.

It took many years for scientists to finally recognize how correct White had been. The book mentions the aphorism that "science advances when old professors die." In this case, it is probably true.

The most interesting parts of the book, are those that describe the detective work that scientists performed, to discover the secrets of the origin of humans. It was also engaging to hear how expeditions faced danger and desert heat to uncover the tiny fossil fragments. I highly recommend this book!

Oh--I did not read this book. I listened to the audiobook, narrated extremely well by Roger Wayne. He spoke so well that I could distinguish who was speaking, just from listening to his voice. What a delight! ...more

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Jan 21, 2024 CatReader rated it liked it

Shelves: cnet

A very thorough (15 hour audiobook) work about teams of competing archeologists, disappointingly focusing on pettiness and interpersonal conflicts between rival scientists, and less so on the science itself. Tim White, the discoverer of 4.4 million year old specimen Ardi, serves as the book's antagonist/antihero who runs afoul of almost everyone. I picked this book up hoping for insights into paleobiology, but I was largely disappointed. I would recommend this book as a cautionary tale to scient ...more

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Mar 02, 2024 bup rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook, 2024, science

It's worth it, if you're looking for the scientific history and debate over the evolution of Homo sapiens from ancestors, to get through the first third of the book, which feels more like a book about the difficulty in being a paleoanthropologist in regions and times when there was a lot of political upheaval, cold war influence on science, and plain ol' danger associated with finding fossils of hominids/hominines.

Scientists like White, Johanson, Lovejoy and others deserve recognition for their ...more

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Jan 22, 2024 Nichole rated it liked it

Good book, but I was looking for a more science based book on the discoveries. This was more a history of the people who made the discoveries and the drama between them.

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