Raymonde Bonnefille is a biologist geologist. A former member of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (“Geology of the Quaternary”), she is a specialist in tropical pollens. She is the author of over a hundred articles on tropical pollens, but also on the history of vegetation, the application of the palynological method to reconstruct the environment of prehistoric people, and on paleoclimates.
A palynologist reports from inside the adventure that led to the discovery of Lucy in 1974 on the Hadar site in Ethiopia. . .
Daily life on the site of an archeological dig, fieldwork, rivalries between scientists and between teams…: this is an opportunity for the reader to learn about the first big African expeditions, encountering along the way a few of the figures, usually men, who dominated paleontology at the time: Jean Chavaillon, Maurice Taieb, but also Mary [ok?] Leakey, Donald Johanson, and of course, Yves Coppens. . .