This Very Short Introduction traces the history of paleoanthropology from its beginnings in the eighteenth century to the latest fossil finds. Although concentrating on the fossil evidence for human evolution, it also covers the latest genetic evidence about regional variations in the modern human genome that relate to our evolutionary history. Bernard Wood draws on over thirty years of experience to provide an insider's view of the field and some of the personalities in it, and demonstrates that our understanding of human evolution is critically dependent on advances in related sciences such as paleoclimatology, geochronology, systematics, genetics, and developmental biology.
Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction
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About the Author
Bernard Wood is Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Origins at George Washington University and the Smithsonian Institution.
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Many of the important advances made by biologists in the past 150 years can be reduced to a single metaphor. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Many of the important advances made by biologists in the past 150 years can be reduced to a single metaphor. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Gerund
Format:Paperback
These Short Introductions are a bit of a mixed bag. This one is absolutely excellent. It's well laid out with very clear chapters entitled:
Introduction
Finding our place
Fossil hominins: their discovery and context
Fossil hominins: analysis and interpretation
Early hominins: possible and probable
Archaic and transitional hominins
Pre-modern Homo
Modern Homo
Strangely, it has the same diagram of different hominins repeated three times in the book, each with with different titles. It seems to be a copy-editing error but is actually rather useful!
The writing is clear and lucid and a joy to read. It's always a great reading pleasure when you come across a factual author who can actually 'write'.
The author, Bernard Wood, has impeccable qualifications:
he is Professor of Human Origins at George Washington University and a Senior Scientist in the Human Origins Programme of the Smithsonian Institute. He is a medically qualified palaeoanthropologist and was on Richard Leakey's first expedition to Lake Rudolph in 1968 and has pursued research in the field ever since.
The book was published in 2005, so will need an update soon but, meanwhile, I highly recommend it as an introduction to a fascinating subject about which we know so little.
Introduction
Finding our place
Fossil hominins: their discovery and context
Fossil hominins: analysis and interpretation
Early hominins: possible and probable
Archaic and transitional hominins
Pre-modern Homo
Modern Homo
Strangely, it has the same diagram of different hominins repeated three times in the book, each with with different titles. It seems to be a copy-editing error but is actually rather useful!
The writing is clear and lucid and a joy to read. It's always a great reading pleasure when you come across a factual author who can actually 'write'.
The author, Bernard Wood, has impeccable qualifications:
he is Professor of Human Origins at George Washington University and a Senior Scientist in the Human Origins Programme of the Smithsonian Institute. He is a medically qualified palaeoanthropologist and was on Richard Leakey's first expedition to Lake Rudolph in 1968 and has pursued research in the field ever since.
The book was published in 2005, so will need an update soon but, meanwhile, I highly recommend it as an introduction to a fascinating subject about which we know so little.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Dr. H. A. Jones
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Human Evolution: A very short introduction, by Bernard Wood, Oxford, 2005, 144 ff.
The biology of human evolution
By Howard A. Jones
Though this is another admirable publication in Oxford's Very Short Introduction series, generally intended for readership by non-specialists, the degree of biological detail here make this more suitable for undergraduate biologists with an interest in paleoanthropology. The author is himself a medically qualified paleoanthropologist, a Professor of Human Origins at the George Washington University in America, so there is much, perhaps necessarily, anatomical detail about the fossil human remains that have been unearthed.
After an introduction that takes us from biblical accounts of our origins, through the work of Vesalius, Lamarck, Darwin, Huxley, Lyell and Mendel, right up to Watson and Crick and the human genome project, we are treated to a discussion of the biological differentiation of humans (hominins) and panins, gorillas and orang-utans - our genetic similarities and anatomical differences.
There are details of oxygen isotope measurement as a guide to past climates; methods of dating fossils and the sediments or rocks in which they are found; and how the age and sex of hominins is determined from the skeletal fragments that anthropologists usually have to be content with. The author points out that while `modern humans have a substantial fossil record . . . the fossil record for chimpanzees [our genetically nearest animal relatives] is virtually non-existent.' So the story is largely one of intelligent piecing together of our ancestry from what remains there are.
It was Darwin who first suggested that, as we are probably related to the apes and they exist largely in Africa, this would be a good place to start looking for human remains. Modern biologists tell us that indeed we did, in the beginning, `come out of Africa'.
This is a well-written book full of fascinating, if at times a little overwhelming, detail. The book about Evolution in general by the Charlesworths in the same series is more accessible to the non-specialist.
Dr Howard A. Jones is the author of The Thoughtful Guide to God (2006) and The Tao of Holism (2008), both published by O Books of Winchester, UK.
Evolution: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
The biology of human evolution
By Howard A. Jones
Though this is another admirable publication in Oxford's Very Short Introduction series, generally intended for readership by non-specialists, the degree of biological detail here make this more suitable for undergraduate biologists with an interest in paleoanthropology. The author is himself a medically qualified paleoanthropologist, a Professor of Human Origins at the George Washington University in America, so there is much, perhaps necessarily, anatomical detail about the fossil human remains that have been unearthed.
After an introduction that takes us from biblical accounts of our origins, through the work of Vesalius, Lamarck, Darwin, Huxley, Lyell and Mendel, right up to Watson and Crick and the human genome project, we are treated to a discussion of the biological differentiation of humans (hominins) and panins, gorillas and orang-utans - our genetic similarities and anatomical differences.
There are details of oxygen isotope measurement as a guide to past climates; methods of dating fossils and the sediments or rocks in which they are found; and how the age and sex of hominins is determined from the skeletal fragments that anthropologists usually have to be content with. The author points out that while `modern humans have a substantial fossil record . . . the fossil record for chimpanzees [our genetically nearest animal relatives] is virtually non-existent.' So the story is largely one of intelligent piecing together of our ancestry from what remains there are.
It was Darwin who first suggested that, as we are probably related to the apes and they exist largely in Africa, this would be a good place to start looking for human remains. Modern biologists tell us that indeed we did, in the beginning, `come out of Africa'.
This is a well-written book full of fascinating, if at times a little overwhelming, detail. The book about Evolution in general by the Charlesworths in the same series is more accessible to the non-specialist.
Dr Howard A. Jones is the author of The Thoughtful Guide to God (2006) and The Tao of Holism (2008), both published by O Books of Winchester, UK.
Evolution: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you're looking for a short and comprehensible guide to hominin evolution start here. This is an excellent guide to the bewildering array of species leading up to homo sapiens. What it doesn't do - and this point is clearly made - is look at hominin behaviour, but that's not really what I was after. The summary of theories surrounding 'Recent Out of Africa' (or 'Out of Africa 2') is also very clear.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful overview
I found this an excellent starter that sorts the bewilderingly huge number of human and pre-human species into just 4 main categories. Four is memorisable. Read more
Published 10 days ago by seekerfinder
5.0 out of 5 stars
Short, detailed and up-to-date
This book is everything that the VSI (Very Short Introductions) are supposed to be: it's short, it's to the point and it's up-to-date. Read more
Published on 5 April 2011 by Dr. Bojan Tunguz
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