The Human Odyssey: Four Million Years of Human Evolution

by Tattersall, Ian

• ISBN13: 9780595186983
• ISBN10: 059518698X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Iuniverse Inc

Summary

Traces the path of human evolution from the simplest forms, through the development of primates, to the rise of modern humankind.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xii
Donald C. Johanson
In The Beginning	1	(14)
The heritage of life
Life's molecule
Primitive life forms
The many kingdoms of life
Seaweeds and slime molds: ``wastebasket'' organisms
Fungi: giants of the forest
Plants: energy from sunlight
Animals: enormous variety
The backboned animals
Humans Are Vertebrates	15	(18)
The skeleton and muscles
Digestion
``Chemical messengers''
Breathing
Circulation
The body's cleaning mechanism
The nervous system
Our senses
Vision
Smell and Taste
Hearing
Balance
Touch
Humans Are Mammals	33	(10)
Egg-laying mammals
The pouched mammals
The placental mammals
Humans are primates
Defining the primates
Primate Evolution	43	(20)
Setting the stage
Our earliest ancestors?
The first ``modern'' primates
Early ``higher'' primates
What is a ``higher'' primate?
Ancient higher primates of the Egyptian forest
Hominoids at last
The living apes
Proconsul and its relatives
Early great apes
Human Evolution	63	(10)
How evolution happens
What are fossils?
Dating rocks and fossils
The background to human evolution
The Earliest Human Relatives	73	(22)
The first upright walkers
The footprints at Laetoli
Southern apes of the Afar
Ancestral environments
Why upright posture?
Was Lucy really our ancestor?
The southern ape of Africa
Dating the southern Apes
Killer apes?
Early human lifestyles
``Robust'' early humans of southern Africa
A different diet?
``IIyper-robusts'' from East Africa
Paranthropus ecology in eastern Africa
Relationships among the early bipeds
The Mystery of Olduvai Gorge: `` Handy Man''	95	(6)
The first ``advanced'' humans
What is ``culture''?
The first stone tools
The lifestyle of Homo habilis
The Great Leap Forward	101	(12)
The ``upright ape-man'' from Java
Peking Man
Cannibal feasts?
Homo erectus in Africa?
The ``Turkana Boy''
Advanced toolmaking: hand axes and cleavers
How many species?
Lifestyles of early advanced humans
Toward Modern Humans	113	(10)
The Ice Ages
The earliest Europeans
The earliest shelters
Advanced humans in Africa
Better stone tools
``Problem'' fossils
The Neanderthals	123	(10)
The ``classic'' Neanderthals
Who were the Neanderthals?
Burials and ``bear cults''
Neanderthal tools and lifestyles
How ``human'' were the Neanderthals?
The Origin of Modern Humans	133	(20)
Europe: Neanderthal Armageddon?
The Mediterranean Basin: ``ancient modern'' people
Out of Africa, always something new!
More African fossils
Mystery areas: Eastern Asia and Australia
Late arrivals: the first Americans
Where did we come from?
The Human Spirit	153	(20)
Cro-Magnon lifestyles
Ice Age art
The development of Ice Age art
Ice Age art and the environment
The end of the Ice Age
Afterword	173	(4)
Glossary	177	(12)
For Further Reading	189	(2)
Index	191