Download or read book The Evolution of Homo Erectus written by G. Philip Rightmire and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the fossils of Homo erectus and suggests how Homo sapiens may have arisen.
Download or read book Homo erectus written by W. Henry Gilbert and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2009-02-04 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume, the first in a series devoted to the paleoanthropological resources of the Middle Awash Valley of Ethiopia, studies Homo erectus, a close relative of Homo sapiens. Written by a team of highly regarded scholars, this book provides the first detailed descriptions, photographs, and analysis of the fossil vertebrates—from elephants and hyenas to humans—from the Daka Member of the Bouri Formation of the Afar, a place renowned for an abundant and lengthy record of human ancestors. These fossils contribute to our understanding human evolution, and the associated fauna provide new information about the distribution and variability of Pleistocene mammals in eastern Africa. The contributors are all active researchers who worked on the paleontology and geology of these unique deposits. Here they have combined their disparate efforts into a single volume, making the original research results accessible to both the specialist and the general reader. The volume synthesizes environmental backdrop and anatomical detail to open an unparalleled window on the African Pleistocene and its inhabitants.
Download or read book The History of Our Tribe written by Barbara Welker and published by Open SUNY Textbooks. This book was released on 2017-01-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where did we come from? What were our ancestors like? Why do we differ from other animals? How do scientists trace and construct our evolutionary history? The Evolution of Our Tribe: Hominini provides answers to these questions and more. The book explores the field of paleoanthropology past and present. Beginning over 65 million years ago, Welker traces the evolution of our species, the environments and selective forces that shaped our ancestors, their physical and cultural adaptations, and the people and places involved with their discovery and study. It is designed as a textbook for a course on Human Evolution but can also serve as an introductory text for relevant sections of courses in Biological or General Anthropology or general interest. It is both a comprehensive technical reference for relevant terms, theories, methods, and species and an overview of the people, places, and discoveries that have imbued paleoanthropology with such fascination, romance, and mystery.
Download or read book How Language Began written by Daniel L. Everett and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2019-12-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Buzzfeed Gift Guide Selection “Few books on the biological and cultural origin of humanity can be ranked as classics. I believe [this] will be one of them.” — Edward O. Wilson At the time of its publication, How Language Began received high acclaim for capturing the fascinating history of mankind’s most incredible creation. Deemed a “bombshell” linguist and “instant folk hero” by Tom Wolfe (Harper’s), Daniel L. Everett posits that the near- 7,000 languages that exist today are not only the product of one million years of evolution but also have allowed us to become Earth’s apex predator. Tracing 60,000 generations, Everett debunks long- held theories across a spectrum of disciplines to affi rm the idea that we are not born with an instinct for language. Woven with anecdotes of his nearly forty years of fi eldwork amongst Amazonian hunter- gatherers, this is a “completely enthralling” (Spectator) exploration of our humanity and a landmark study of what makes us human. “[An] ambitious text. . . . Everett’s amiable tone, and especially his captivating anecdotes . . . , will help the neophyte along.”— New York Times Book Review
Download or read book The Rise of Homo Sapiens written by Frederick L. Coolidge and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-04-13 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rise of Homo Sapiens: The Evolution of Human Thinking presents a provocative theory about the evolution of the modern mind based on archaeological evidence and the working memory model of experimental psychologist Alan Baddeley. The book explains the mystery of the disappearance of the Neandertals and the ascendancy of modern Homo sapiens - and whether this was at the expense of the Neandertals. The Rise of Homo Sapiens has been written to introduce scientists and students to the fascinating interface between the worlds of archaeology and cognitive science, and argues that the evolution of modern thinking occurred in two major leaps; the advent of Homo erectus over 1.5 million years ago, and a final enhancement of working memory capacity sometime within the last 200,000 years. The authors argue that highly ritualized burials, personal ornaments, cave art and highly creative figurines, and age and gender divisions of economic labor, all of which were characteristic of Homo sapiens about 30,000 years ago, were clearly products of their cognitive functions, e.g., central executive functions. Neandertals, living at the same time, had virtually none of these cultural products despite larger brains! This is the first book to explain elaborately how thinking differences between Homo sapiens and Neandertals may have accounted for the ultimate demise of Neandertals. Cognitive archaeology is a quickly growing discipline yet archaeologists have been slow to adopt current theories, models, and findings within contemporary cognitive science. The Rise of Homo Sapiens will serve as a unique introduction and primer into both disciplines.
Download or read book Human Evolution written by Bernard A. Wood and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of human evolution is advancing rapidly. New fossil evidence is adding ever more pieces to the puzzle of our past; the new science of ancient DNA is completely reshaping theories of early human populations and migrations. Bernard Wood traces the field of palaeoanthropology from its beginnings in the eighteenth century to the present.
Download or read book The Origin of Our Species written by Chris Stringer and published by Penguin Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chris Stringer's bestselling The Origin of our Species tackles the big questions in the ongoing debate about the beginnings of human life on earth. Do all humans originate from Africa? How did we spread across the globe? Are we separate from Neanderthals, or do some of us actually have their genes? When did humans become 'modern' - are traits such as art, technology, language, ritual and belief unique to us? Has human evolution stopped, or are we still evolving? Chris Stringer has been involved in much of the crucial research into the origins of humanity, and here he draws on a wealth of evidence - from fossils and archaeology to Charles Darwin's theories and the mysteries of ancient DNA - to reveal the definitive story of where we came from, how we lived, how we got here and who we are. 'A new way of defining us and our place in history' Sunday Times 'When it comes to human evolution Chris Stringer is as close to the horse's mouth as it gets ... The Origin of Our Species should be the one-stop source on the subject. Read it now' BBC Focus 'Britain's foremost expert on human evolution ... you need a primer to make sense of the story so far. Here is that book' Guardian 'Combines anecdote and speculation with crisp explanation of the latest science in the study of the first humans ... an engaging read' New Scientist Chris Stringer is Britain's foremost expert on human origins and works in the Department of Palaeontology at the Natural History Museum. He also currently directs the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project, aimed at reconstructing the first detailed history of how and when Britain was occupied by early humans. His previous books include African Exodus- The Origins of Modern Humanity, The Complete World of Human Evolutionand most recently, Homo Britannicus, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book of the Year in 2007.
Download or read book Understanding Climate s Influence on Human Evolution written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2010-04-17 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hominin fossil record documents a history of critical evolutionary events that have ultimately shaped and defined what it means to be human, including the origins of bipedalism; the emergence of our genus Homo; the first use of stone tools; increases in brain size; and the emergence of Homo sapiens, tools, and culture. The Earth's geological record suggests that some evolutionary events were coincident with substantial changes in African and Eurasian climate, raising the possibility that critical junctures in human evolution and behavioral development may have been affected by the environmental characteristics of the areas where hominins evolved. Understanding Climate's Change on Human Evolution explores the opportunities of using scientific research to improve our understanding of how climate may have helped shape our species. Improved climate records for specific regions will be required before it is possible to evaluate how critical resources for hominins, especially water and vegetation, would have been distributed on the landscape during key intervals of hominin history. Existing records contain substantial temporal gaps. The book's initiatives are presented in two major research themes: first, determining the impacts of climate change and climate variability on human evolution and dispersal; and second, integrating climate modeling, environmental records, and biotic responses. Understanding Climate's Change on Human Evolution suggests a new scientific program for international climate and human evolution studies that involve an exploration initiative to locate new fossil sites and to broaden the geographic and temporal sampling of the fossil and archeological record; a comprehensive and integrative scientific drilling program in lakes, lake bed outcrops, and ocean basins surrounding the regions where hominins evolved and a major investment in climate modeling experiments for key time intervals and regions that are critical to understanding human evolution.
Download or read book The Neandertals written by Erik Trinkaus and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1856 - as Darwin was completing Origin of Species - the fossilized remains of a stocky, powerful human-like creature were discovered in a cave in the Neander Valley in Germany. This work offers an account of the search for man's beginnings and out of a particular man - dead for 40, 000 years - who began a revolution that changed the world.
Download or read book The Genomic Potential Hypothesis written by Christian Schwabe and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2001-08-01 with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Genomic Potential Hypothesis is a biochemist's view of the origin, evolution, and development of life. Large numbers are second nature to a biochemist and though he rarely ever thinks of it explicitly, the concept of mass action is a part of the definition of chemistry. The origin of life, from that perspective, will turn into an event that occ
Download or read book The Nariokotome Homo Erectus Skeleton written by Alan Walker and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The discovery of the Nariokotome Homo erectus skeleton, a milestone in the history of paleoanthropology, is fully documented in this book. Beautifully illustrated, it takes us into the field and the laboratory, and into the far reaches of prehistory, to show us what the fossilized remains of a young boy can tell us about our beginnings.
Download or read book In the Light of Evolution written by National Academy of Sciences and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia of the National Academy of Sciences address scientific topics of broad and current interest, cutting across the boundaries of traditional disciplines. Each year, four or five such colloquia are scheduled, typically two days in length and international in scope. Colloquia are organized by a member of the Academy, often with the assistance of an organizing committee, and feature presentations by leading scientists in the field and discussions with a hundred or more researchers with an interest in the topic. Colloquia presentations are recorded and posted on the National Academy of Sciences Sackler colloquia website and published on CD-ROM. These Colloquia are made possible by a generous gift from Mrs. Jill Sackler, in memory of her husband, Arthur M. Sackler.
Download or read book Homo Erectus written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-11-19 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading Most scientists believe the evolution of humans has a history as long as life itself. Anatomically modern humans and all other life that has existed on the planet first came about from the single-celled microorganisms that emerged approximately 4 billion years ago. Through the processes of mutation and natural selection, all forms of life developed, and this continuous lineage of life makes it difficult to say precisely when one species completely separates from another. In other words, scientists still debate when a human became a human rather than the ancestor species that came before. Around 1.8 million years ago, a third species of Homo appeared in the fossil record. H. erectus would have shared the landscape for a time with H. habilis and H. rudolfensis, but the fossils of H. erectus are not limited to eastern and southern Africa. Instead, they are found across Africa and parts of mainland and insular Asia. This is the first species of Homo to be found outside Africa (Rightmire 1993). Features of H. erectus suggest an evolution toward modern humans, and the features which separate H. erectus from the other Homo species are found in the skull. The size of the brain was approximately 900 cc, making it larger than the brain size of H. habilis. H. erectus would not have the largest brain capacity of the Homo genus during its existence, with the emergence of H. heidelbergensis approximately 800,000 years ago. The larger brain size may not matter much when the size of the brain is considered with the size of the body, which also increased. While the facial features of H. erectus would have made them noticeably different if they were alive today, their postcranial morphology may have been similar to modern humans. A key difference is the density or thickness of the bones; in H. erectus the limb bones are more robust, but otherwise they appear very similar to modern humans. The length of the hindlimbs in relation to the arms is similar to modern humans, which means that H. erectus may have been able to walk in a similar way. (Richtmire 1993: 57-84). This may or may not be linked with the widespread distribution of H. erectus. Perhaps more important for H. erectus than simply being able to walk out of Africa would have been the ability to adapt to changing climates and essentially modify the environment around them. Most notably, the major advantage that H. erectus would have had is the ability to control fire. This skill, which no other animal has mastered, helped H. erectus travel across the world, and it may date as far back as 1.7 million years ago to as recently as 200,000 years ago. Most scientists agree that H. erectus was able to control fire by at least 600,000 years ago, and anatomically modern humans were able to create and use fire 150,000 years ago. The early species of Homo would have been familiar with the effects of fire, from the devastation it could cause to jungle habitats to the rapid spreading wildfires of the savanna. These fires would have killed and burned animals that early Homo would have found while scavenging after a natural fire. Homo erectus: The History of the Archaic Humans Who Left Africa and Formed the First Hunter-Gatherer Societies examines how H. erectus evolved, and what their lives were like. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about H. erectus like never before.
Download or read book The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack written by Ian Tattersall and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2015-06-09 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his new book The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack, human paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall argues that a long tradition of "human exceptionalism" in paleoanthropology has distorted the picture of human evolution. Drawing partly on his own career—from young scientist in awe of his elders to crotchety elder statesman—Tattersall offers an idiosyncratic look at the competitive world of paleoanthropology, beginning with Charles Darwin 150 years ago, and continuing through the Leakey dynasty in Africa, and concluding with the latest astonishing findings in the Caucasus. The book's title refers to the 1856 discovery of a clearly very old skull cap in Germany's Neander Valley. The possessor had a brain as large as a modern human, but a heavy low braincase with a prominent brow ridge. Scientists tried hard to explain away the inconvenient possibility that this was not actually our direct relative. One extreme interpretation suggested that the preserved leg bones were curved by both rickets, and by a life on horseback. The pain of the unfortunate individual's affliction had caused him to chronically furrow his brow in agony, leading to the excessive development of bone above the eye sockets. The subsequent history of human evolutionary studies is full of similarly fanciful interpretations. With tact and humor, Tattersall concludes that we are not the perfected products of natural processes, but instead the result of substantial doses of random happenstance.
Download or read book Homo Sapiens to Homo X written by Lawrence Nyaguti Ochieng. and published by Partridge Africa. This book was released on 2015-04-09 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each successive generation of mankind since archaic times has been shown to exhibit significant difference in aesthetics, social behavior and physiological make up. These changes are evolutionary. This book is therefore a study of humans since archaic times and the changes that have since occurred in man. It seeks to convince the world that from apelike, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and then Homo sapiens, we are now Homo x. By exploiting Charles Darwins organic theory of evolution and recorded historical developments (social, cultural, and biological) to date, the research has proved that your child or the youth around you is most likely a higher evolved human species, or different from you. He or she is Homo x. The book highlights historical, climatic, technological, and cultural adaptation by Homo sapiens since the exit of Homo erectus, which has catapulted evolutionary transformation of man within the shortest period making Homo sapiens the fastest of the hominids in the evolution succession to have undergone complete evolution by explaining the differences in lifespan experience of each hominid. It is therefore intended to help transform our policy and legislative and cultural perspectives on nurturing our children with clear knowledge that they are indeed different from us!
Download or read book Deep History written by Andrew Shryock and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2011-11-07 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This breakthrough book brings science into history to offer a dazzling new vision of humanity across time. Team-written by leading experts in a variety of fields, it maps events, cultures, and eras across millions of years to present a new scale for understanding the human body, energy and ecosystems, language, food, kinship, migration, and more.
Download or read book Catching Fire written by Richard Wrangham and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2010-08-06 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this stunningly original book, Richard Wrangham argues that it was cooking that caused the extraordinary transformation of our ancestors from apelike beings to Homo erectus. At the heart of Catching Fire lies an explosive new idea: the habit of eating cooked rather than raw food permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, helped structure human society, and created the male-female division of labour. As our ancestors adapted to using fire, humans emerged as "the cooking apes". Covering everything from food-labelling and overweight pets to raw-food faddists, Catching Fire offers a startlingly original argument about how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today. "This notion is surprising, fresh and, in the hands of Richard Wrangham, utterly persuasive ... Big, new ideas do not come along often in evolution these days, but this is one." -Matt Ridley, author of Genome
