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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 569.9 EAN: 9780300100471 ISBN: 0300100477 Label: Yale University Press Manufacturer: Yale University Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 256 Publication Date: June 28, 2007 Publisher: Yale University Press Studio: Yale University Press Editorial Review: Product Description: This book tells the story of human evolution, the epic of Homo sapiens and its colorful precursors and relatives. The story begins in Africa, six to seven million years ago, and encompasses twenty known human species, of which Homo sapiens is the sole survivor. Illustrated with spectacular, three-dimensional scientific reconstructions portrayed in their natural habitat developed by a team of physical anthropologists at the American Museum of Natural History and in concert with experts from around the world, the book is both a guide to extinct human species and an astonishing hominid family photo album. The Last Human presents a comprehensive account of each species with information on its emergence, chronology, geographic range, classification, physiology, lifestyle, habitat, environment, cultural achievements, co-existing species, and possible reasons for extinction. Also included are summaries of fossil discoveries, controversies, and publications. What emerges from the fossil story is a new understanding of Homo sapiens. No longer credible is the notion that our species is the end product of a single lineage, improved over generations by natural selection. Rather, the fossil record shows, we are a species with widely varied precursors, and our family tree is characterized by many branchings and repeated extinctions. Exhibition information: Photographs of most of the reconstructions that appear in this book will be featured in exhibits appearing in the new Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The opening of the Hall is planned for November 2006. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - We aren't sure of anythingI can totally understand why we don't have too much factual information about time periods that are so long ago; but the evidence for these Species is so limited, we can't draw any conclusions. A lot of the time even the existence of the species is still being debated. I'm writing my review about 160 pages in, out of 250 and its been slow, technical reading. About the shape and size of teeth, the location of where the bones where found, etc. No fun stuff so far, we really don't much about anything ... Read More Rating:  - Meet the family...This is a great book to have at home, one to read on the couch while drinking tea and listening to the rain outside the windows. With short stories and real photos to try to help us picture and understand those early humans who use to roam the surface of Earth. Hairy, scarred, scared and yet intelligent, emotional, the start of us, this book tries to help us understand them without going off into a fictional fantasy world. The book deals with diet, tools, and habitat with some guesses at behavior. ... Read More Rating:  - One of many.Discussions surrounding human origins have become increasingly complicated, but this book provides a useful means of looking at the variability that paleoanthropologists are finding in the fossil record. This doesn't mean that every word or species assignment is without debate, but it is a useful tool for looking at the variety of species that either share deep ancestry or are direct ancestors of modern human beings. Rating: - Interpreting facial details in reconstructionsThis is a marvelous book and I will not give it fewer than 5 stars, despite my small criticism of it, which is that many of the reconstructions seem to closely resemble chimpanzees or gorillas until we get to the genus Homo when, voila!, they start to resemble people. For example, take a look at Paranthopus boisei on page 137. I don't doubt that the soft tissues were correctly placed. But what do you suppose this reconstruction would look like if the builders had gone to the other extreme and made it look ... Read More Rating: - extinct hominidsinteresting book, written for a lay audience by experts in the field. Vivid reconstructions of some 20 extinct pre-humans, information about where they lived, fossil evidence, etc. Little molecular evidence. |
