Today it was announced that scientists had unearthed in Ethiopia the first nearly complete skull of the earliest recognized human ancestors. It's that of a male who lived three million years ago, giving a face to the species first identified in 1974 with the discovery of the skeleton named "Lucy." Paleoanthropologist DONALD JOHANSON discovered Lucy and was part of the team to make this new discovery. The discovery could settle the debate of whether various fossils from this time period were from a single species, Australopithecus afarensis, or from different species. It also completes the picture of what the species looked like and will help confirm Lucy's position in human lineage. DR. JOHANSON is the president and founder of the Institute of Human Origins in Berkeley, and hosted a three-part Nova miniseries "Ancestors: In search of Human Origins." The companion book to the series is also called "Ancestors." (Villard
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