The Complete World of Human Evolution

I am not an expert in this area. I saw a TV series on Discovery channel and I got interested. This book offers SO MUCH information!! It is written rigorously like an academic book, but the wealth of pictures, photos, make it an interesting read. I learned a lot from this book. I also like the fact that they provide lots of facts, and not so much speculation. I'd recommend it to people who are interested in learning more about human evolution.

Chris Stringer and Peter Andrews did a superlative job with the book. It is the best one I have read on the subject. It is beautifully illustrated with copious colored photos and drawings. The pages are of thick quality paper. The topic is covered thoroughly and competently. It is very up to date and educational. It would make a great gift, a great reference book, a great textbook for an anthropology course, or just a great read for yourself. I think that it is priced at only one-fourth of its real value and I love bargains. Ralph Hermansen, March 7, 2007

Excellent! Author deals with the subject in a articulate and coherent manner.

Among science's "throwaway" lines, few have achieved the status of Charles Darwin's. When "The Origin of Species" was published, he dropped a teasing line about human ancestry at the very end: "Light will be thrown on the origins of man . . ." For over a generation after his death, the most significant human fossil proved a forgery. Stringer and Andrews have updated the record. In doing so, they've given us a finely crafted and superbly produced account of our ancestry. The term "world" is significant, as they display fossils, artefacts and the digs where these items were found from the southern tip of Africa to the edge of South America. Breaking the study into three segments, the authors relate the history of archaeology, illustrating the evolutionary picture and the tools that detail it. They explain what the fossil evidence demonstrates about our ancestors, primate through hominid to human. Finally, they trace the path of our ancestors' expansion out of Africa into Asia, Australia, Europe and the Western Hemisphere. The running theme of the book is that we belong to the ape family. The primates have a long, diverse history, which firmly set our roots. From African origins, the apes sent emigrants into Asia and Europe. The hominin apes followed those paths and further. Human evolution didn't cease merely because our species inhabited most of the planet. The authors note the complexity of evolutionary forces and caution those who feel there is some "directionality" in our rise. Species survival must reflect knowledge of our roots. As an enhancement to explaining how data about our evolution has been found and assessed, the authors have selected several sites of major importance. These digs range from the famous Olduvai Gorge excavations of the Leakey family to the Boxgrove site on the south coast of Britain. Each site is historically described and depicted with location and detailed maps. The teams have a say and the techniques involved in revealing the evidence of our past are explained. Analytical methods are related, particularly as they involve the sites. Of major interest is the placing of the site's past environmental in its palaeontological context. There are copious photographs of the site area, the fossils and other artefacts gleaned. It's impossible to see the workers on the digs without wondering how many of them will go on to make significant finds of their own in some new location. The authors are meticulous in presenting the maximum amount of information possible in a limited space. There are morphological comparisons - skulls, legs and feet, hands and, of course, teeth - of various primates. The illustrations indicate how the passage of time modified structures and what the changes represent. Teeth and jaws, the dietary indicators, are given close, but not overmuch, attention. Among the many examples, a skull from Turkey, "Ankarapithecus meteai" is one of the science's "head scratchers". Although

This book is actually about the evolution of apes, starting with Proconsul and working up to all of the living apes, including us. But it is we who are at center stage, with the others in supporting roles. The book starts with an extended section on how fossils and evolution are studied. This includes how dates are estimated, how fossils are formed, and how environments and climate fit into the picture. Then there are descriptions of some dig sites. The next section, titled "The Fossil Evidence", covers many fossils from our past, along with some analysis. The final section, "Interpreting the Evidence", is mostly about what the evidence tell us regarding behavior, especially tool use. This will be the payoff for many readers, since it is what makes us human. There is little technical language; when it is necessary to use a technical term, it is usually explained, for example "humerus (upper arm bone)". There is no way to avoid using the scientific names of the fossil species, but the translations, such as "Greek ape" for "Graecopithecus", will help. The text is divided into bite-size pieces of 2-6 pages, each with several illustrations. The pieces have such titles as "Dating the Past", "The Neanderthals", "The First Americans". The illustrations consist of photos and drawings, mostly in color, as well as graphs and charts. It's not quite a coffee table book, but I did find myself a few times thumbing through to look at the pictures. Obviously, a book with such a large scope can't cover any particular topic in any detail. But if you want more information on something, you can Google it. Instead, this book brings everything into one picture, so to speak, showing how the pieces relate to each other. It is a fine introduction or overview for any interested non-scientist.