Two discoveries of early human relatives, one in 1924 and one in 2003, radically changed scientific thinking about our origins. Dean Falk, a pioneer in the field of human brain evolution, offers this fast-paced insider's account of these discoveries, the behind-the-scenes politics embroiling the scientists who found and analyzed them, and the academic and religious controversies they generated. The first is the Taung child, a two-million-year-old skull from South Africa that led anatomist Raymond Dart to argue that this creature had walked upright and that Africa held the key to the fossil ancestry of our species. The second find consisted of the partial skeleton of a three-and-a-half-foot-tall woman, nicknamed Hobbit, from Flores Island, Indonesia. She is thought by scientists to belong to a new, recently extinct species of human, but her story is still unfolding. Falk, who has studied the brain casts of both Taung and Hobbit, reveals new evidence crucial to interpreting both discoveries and proposes surprising connections between this pair of extraordinary specimens.

Product Description: We've all heard that a father's involvement enriches the lives of children. But how much have we heard about how having a child affects a father's life? As Peter Gray and Kermyt Anderson reveal, fatherhood actually alters a man's sexuality, rewires his brain, and changes his hormonal profile...read more

Product Description: The definitive textbook for paleoanthropology courses.Reconstructing Human Origins is the most authoritative, comprehensive, and popular paleoanthropology textbook available. Respected anthropologists Glenn Conroy and new coauthor Herman Pontzer use clear writing and abundant, carefully chosen illustrations to illuminate key concepts and help students get the most out of the course...read more

Product Description: This is the story of the search for humanity's origins--from the Middle Ages, when questions of the earth's antiquity first began to arise, through to the latest genetic discoveries that show the interrelatedness of all living creatures...read more

Product Description: Despite Darwin's bold contention in 1871 that the likely ancestor for Homo sapiens was an African ape, the scientific community hesitated for decades before accepting small-brained but bipedal walking "apes" from southern Africa as direct human ancestors...read more

Product Description: Assuming that the earliest human ancestors grew more like apes than current-day humans, when, how and why did our modern growth pattern evolve? Covering growth patterns within available Plio-Pleistocene Hominids, including juvenile fossil specimens, and individuals assigned to the newest species, Homo antecessor, this book provides a rich data source for anthropologists and evolutionary biologists exploring these questions...read more

Product Description: Assuming that the earliest human ancestors grew more like apes than current-day humans, when, how and why did our modern growth pattern evolve? Covering growth patterns within available Plio-Pleistocene Hominids, including juvenile fossil specimens, and individuals assigned to the newest species, Homo antecessor, this book provides a rich data source for anthropologists and evolutionary biologists exploring these questions...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Ideal for introduction to archaeology and world prehistory courses, The Past in Perspective: An Introduction to Human Prehistory, Fifth Edition, is an engaging and up-to-date chronological introduction to human prehistory. Kenneth L...read more

Product Description: Since its publication in 1989, The Human Career has proved to be an indispensable tool in teaching human origins. This substantially revised third edition retains Richard G. Klein’s innovative approach while showing how cumulative discoveries and analyses over the past ten years have significantly refined our knowledge of human evolution...read more

Product Description: This volume brings together new and important research from the top experts in hominid diets across multiple fields. The objective of the volume is to explore if there is a consensus between the different methods, allowing us to better understand the nature of hominin dietary strategies through time...read more

Product Description: "This textbook, aimed at advanced undergraduates and postgraduates in paleoanthropology courses, tackles a rather difficult task—that of presenting the substantial body of paleontological, genetic, geological and archaeological evidence regarding human evolution, and the associated scientific history, in a logical and readable way without sacrificing either clarity or detail...read more

Product Description: Extensively revised and updated, the second edition of The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution offers a colorful history of fossil discoveries and a revealing insider's look at how these finds have been interpreted--and misinterpreted--through time...read more

Product Description: Wo kommen wir her? Wie ist der Mensch entstanden? Warum haben nur wir - der Homo sapiens - überlebt? Was geschah mit unseren Verwandten?  Zum ersten Mal können Sie in diesem Buch sämtlichen unserer ausgestorbenen Vorfahren in Form lebensnaher Rekonstruktionen Auge in Auge gegenübertreten...read more

Product Description: This dynamic chronicle of the race to find the “missing links” between humans and apes transports readers into the highly competitive world of fossil hunting and into the lives of the ambitious scientists intent on pinpointing the dawn of humankind...read more

Product Description: To be human is to be curious. And one of the things we are most curious about is how we came to be who we are--how we evolved over millions of years to become creatures capable of inquiring into our own evolution. In this lively and readable introduction, renowned anthropologist Ian Tattersall thoroughly examines both fossil and archaeological records to trace human evolution from the earliest beginnings of our zoological family, Hominidae, through the appearance of Homo sapiens to the Agricultural Revolution...read more

Product Description: To be human is to be curious. And one of the things we are most curious about is how we came to be who we are--how we evolved over millions of years to become creatures capable of inquiring into our own evolution. In this lively and readable introduction, renowned anthropologist Ian Tattersall thoroughly examines both fossil and archaeological records to trace human evolution from the earliest beginnings of our zoological family, Hominidae, through the appearance of Homo sapiens to the Agricultural Revolution...read more

Product Description: Written specifically for courses that cover biological anthropology and archaeology, this superbly illustrated new text offers the most balanced and up-to-date introduction to our human past.  Devoting equal time to biological anthropology and prehistory, this text exposes students to the many sides of major controversial issues, involving students in the scientific thought process by allowing them to draw their own conclusions...read more

Product Description: Human Evolution provides a comprehensive overview of hominid evolution, synthesising data and approaches from fields as diverse as physical anthropology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, genetics, archaeology, psychology and philosophy...read more

Product Description: Human Evolution provides a comprehensive overview of hominid evolution, synthesizing data and approaches from fields as diverse as physical anthropology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, genetics, archaeology, psychology, and philosophy...read more

Product Description: Challenges the popular "Eve" theory of human origins, presenting the controversial "multiregional" model of human evolution and racial differences that finds evidence in fossil remains.

Creates three-dimensional scientific reconstructions for twenty-two species of extinct humans, providing information for each one on its emergence, chronology, geographic range, classification, physiology, environment, habitat, cultural achievements, coexisting species, and possible reasons for extinction.

Over the last two centuries the fossil record has revealed at least 20 different species of ancient human ancestors reaching back 7 million years into the past. This book takes the reader on a voyage into the deep past to discover how we became human, and how modern science is rewriting our family tree.

Describes the emergence of humankind out of Africa, charting the course of human development from seven million years ago to the present, highlighting the development of diversity and the human race's ability to invent and discover.