Article: On `Nova,' the ultimate `Roots' Series tracks down our earliest ancestors

A hominid -- female, 3 1/2 feet tall -- collapses at the edge of an ancient swamp. Vultures and hungry fish overlook this, and 3.2 million years later, anthropologist Donald C. Johanson finds the hominid's skeleton in Ethiopian sands.

Johanson gives her a name, and on that night in 1974, he and other anthropologists gather under a tent and dedicate a song to her: "Lu-cy in the Sky-y, with Di-a-monds!"

That's how humankind's earliest known ancestor was discovered -- the subject of "In Search of Human Origins," a three-part WGBH-produced miniseries for "Nova," airing tonight through Wednesday at 8 on Channel 2.

"For well over a century, people have been fascinated by the search to find a ...

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