This book provides a complete, unbiased, relatively non-technical overview and state-of-the-art discussion of the rapidly changing field of paleoanthropology. It features an abundance of illustrations and photographs from the authors' visits to fossil sites, and views skeletal remains in light of what they can reveal about the populations they represent -- not only their anatomy but also their behavior and social organization. Features rather extensive discussions on the use of genetic data -- particularly that of mtDNA. Covers: Fossils, Fossilization, and Dating Methods; Determining Evolutionary Relationships; Our Place in the Animal Kingdom; Reconstructing Human Behavioral Patterns and Social Organizations: Use of the Comparative Approach; Early Primate Evolution; The Transition to Apes; Trends in Human Evolution; The Earliest Hominids; The Hominid Divergence; Homo Erectus; Early Homo Sapiens; Neandertals and Their Immediate Predecessors; and The Appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens. For anyone interested in a state-of-the-art discussion of paleoanthropology.

Understanding Human Evolution (4th Edition)

Politics & Social Sciences

Poirier, Frank E.

McKee, Jeffrey Kevin

Anthropology

PRENTICE/HALL

Did human evolution proceed in an inevitable fashion? Can we attribute our origins solely to natural selection, or were more mischievous forces at work? 
These are the questions investigated by anthropologist Jeff McKee. He argues that if we were to wind back the clock to our split from ancestral apes, evolution would proceed differently. Ever since our ancestors first stood up on two feet, natural selection undoubtedly was an important factor in guiding human evolution. But McKee shakes the standard notion that natural selection steered early hominids toward particular environmental adaptations. The fossil remains of our ancestors reveal a different story one of an adaptable hominid with no particular direction. It becomes clear that the evolutionary road to Homo sapiens was not paved solely by natural selection; indeed, there was no road to follow. There was just a dim path cut out by prehistoric coincidences and contingencies. Had any link in the evolutionary chain of events been slightly different, then our species would not be as it is today . . . or our ancestors may not have survived at all. 
With equal doses of humor and awe, McKee illustrates how the chain of evolution has been riddled by chance, coincidence, and chaos. He uses familiar examples, noting that many of us exist as individuals because of chance meetings of our parents. From the present back through prehistory, chance is at the heart of our creationÑas is chaos. The classic example of chaos is the butterfly effect: a single butterfly, flapping its wings, causes a tiny change in the atmosphere, which in turn amplifies to affect the course of storms on another continent. McKee ties such examples of unpredictability to fossil evidence and computer simulations, revealing the natural coincidences that shaped our evolution. Although chaos exacted an evolutionary price by limiting the powers of natural selection, it also made us what we are. One can only conclude that human beings were neither inevitable nor probable.

The Riddled Chain: Chance, Coincidence and Chaos in Human Evolution

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Rutgers University Press

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