The Chosen Species The Long March of Human Evolution

by Arsuaga, Juan Luis; Martí; nez, Ignacio

• ISBN13: 9781405115339
• ISBN10: 1405115335
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-30
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This engaging book tells the story of human evolution, asking if man is indeed the "chosen species" or merely an evolutionary accident. Written by world-renowned paleoanthropologists who are co-directors of the excavations at Atapuerca---a World Heritage Site and Europe's oldest known burial site---where a new human species, homo antecessor, was discovered Discusses various hypotheses of human evolution, drawing conclusions from verifiable facts and well-founded argument Offers a compelling narrative written for nonspecialists and students of human evolution Includes over 60 illustrations Sold over 100,000 copies in the original Spanish-language edition

Author Biography

Juan Luis Arsuaga is Professor of Human Paleontology at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Visiting Professor at University College, London, and has been a leading member of the team in charge of the burial site at Atapuerca since 1982.

Ignacio Martínez is Professor of Natural Sciences at Universidad Complutense de Madrid and has been a member of the Atapuerca team since 1984.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction: Prehistory	p. 1
Little Lucy	p. 1
Intrepid Paleontologists	p. 3
Children of Africa	p. 7
Basic Principles of Evolutionary Theory	p. 9
The Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics	p. 9
Natural Selection	p. 10
The Staircase of Progress	p. 13
We the Primates	p. 17
The Ecological Definition and Diversity of Primates	p. 17
The Classification of Primates	p. 20
Hominoids, Apes of Our Own Branch	p. 22
History of the Primates	p. 27
Climate and Evolution	p. 35
The Origin of Species	p. 35
Climate Changes over the Last Few Million Years	p. 36
Paleotemperature Scales	p. 38
Factors in Climate Change	p. 39
Milankovitch Cycles	p. 40
A Climatic Model for Equatorial Africa	p. 43
The Controversial Gas	p. 45
The End of Paradise	p. 46
The Origin of Humanity	p. 49
Molecular Clocks	p. 49
The First Fossil Hominids	p. 51
Change of Habitat	p. 53
East Side Story	p. 57
Dating Fossils	p. 59
The Taung Child	p. 61
Distinguishing Marks	p. 62
The Bipedal Chimpanzee	p. 66
The Great Step	p. 66
The Laetoli Footprints	p. 74
The Mystery of Mysteries of Human Evolution	p. 76
Portrait of the Entire Body of an Australopithecine	p. 78
Paranthropus - Hominids of the Open Plains	p. 87
The Emergence and Distribution of Paranthropus	p. 87
The Specialist	p. 94
A New Kind of Hominid	p. 97
The First Humans	p. 97
The Stone Cutters	p. 98
The Diversification of Homo	p. 102
Ready for the Great Leap	p. 105
Family Relationships	p. 107
The Science of Relationships	p. 110
The Hominid Tree	p. 112
The Evolution of the Brain	p. 116
The Organ of Intelligence	p. 116
Large and Small Brains	p. 117
World Champions of Encephalization	p. 120
Weighing Ghosts	p. 120
The Brain Size of Fossil Hominids	p. 123
Surface Area of the Brain	p. 124
The Size of the Intellect	p. 127
Teeth, Guts, Hands, Brain	p. 129
Types of Diet	p. 129
Carnivorous and Herbivorous Mammals	p. 132
The Teeth of Primates	p. 134
The Teeth of the First Hominids	p. 136
Size of the Molars and Shape of the Hand	p. 138
Guts and Brain	p. 142
Development	p. 145
The Rhythm of the Molars	p. 145
Birth and the Newborn	p. 146
Childhood and Adolescence	p. 152
Social Intelligence	p. 155
The Unexciting Sex Life of the Female Orangutan	p. 155
Behavior as Adaptation	p. 156
Comparative Sociobiology of Hominoids	p. 158
Natural Selection and Sexual Selection	p. 160
Bipedal and Monogamous from the Beginning?	p. 162
Brain Size and Size of Social Group	p. 169
Summary	p. 171
A New Home	p. 177
New Locations for Human Evolution	p. 179
Homo erectus and the Settlement of Asia	p. 179
The First Europeans	p. 182
Gran Dolina and the First Europeans	p. 184
Prehistoric Cannibalism	p. 186
Homo antecessor	p. 186
Human Evolution in Europe during the Middle Pleistocene	p. 190
The Pit of Bones	p. 192
The Neanderthals	p. 197
The Way They Were	p. 197
Life and Death among the Neanderthals	p. 205
The Beginning and End of the Neanderthals	p. 208
The Origins of Modern Humanity: The Fossil Evidence	p. 212
Neanderthals and Modern Humans	p. 212
Two Intelligent Human Species	p. 216
The Levant: A Crossroads	p. 219
To the Easternmost Edge of Asia	p. 222
The African Origin of Homo sapiens	p. 223
The Origins of Modern Humanity: The Genetic Evidence	p. 226
A Brilliant Idea	p. 226
The Molecules of Inheritance	p. 228
Black Eve	p. 229
An Adam for Eve	p. 231
The Other Chromosomes	p. 232
Pleistocene Park	p. 233
Fossils and Molecules	p. 235
Standards of Beauty	p. 237
The Origins of Human Language	p. 239
King Solomon's Ring	p. 239
Language and Brain	p. 241
The Choking Primate	p. 243
The Production of Speech	p. 244
The Fossils Speak	p. 247
Group Selection and the Extinction of the Neanderthals	p. 249
The Crooked Lines of Natural Selection	p. 253
The Meaning of Evolution	p. 255
The Action Replay of Life	p. 255
Organization and Chaos	p. 261
Epilogue	p. 264
The Never-ending Story	p. 264
Bibliography	p. 268
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