Pocket History of Human Evolution

How We Became Sapiens

Author: Silvana Condemi and Fran Ois Savatier

An approachable and helpfully illustrated introduction to our earliest relatives - the first sapiens and their relatives, origins, characteristics, and earliest migrations.

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Summary

An approachable and helpfully illustrated introduction to our earliest relatives - the first sapiens and their relatives, origins, characteristics, and earliest migrations.

Description

A concise, illustrated update on our earliest ancestors, the first sapiens-and on how (and when) we distinguished ourselves.

Prehistory is changing quickly: Thanks to progress in genetics and dating methods, we now know more than ever about our ancient relatives. A POCKET HISTORY OF HUMAN EVOLUTION will bring us up to date on the exploits of Homo erectus and ergaster, the Neanderthals, Denisovans, and others. (Hint: There was a lot more crossbreeding than previously supposed.) These latest discoveries have only spurred more questions. Lauded paleoanthropologist Silvana Condemi and science journalist Fran ois Savatier consider: What accelerated Homo sapiens' evolution - and left us the sole surviving species among many ancient bipedal "humans"? Was it tools, our 'large' brain, language, or empathy? Their conclusions are likely to startle (and inspire a new appreciation for the human foot).

Condemi and Savatier also look to the future of our strange species - migratory, social animals with a rapidly expanding population, who have transformed our world forever. By taking stock of our ancestors, we can better understand ourselves.

Critic Reviews

“"Keeping up with the flood of new information about our human origins is hard enough. So it is a minor miracle that Silvana Condemi and Fran”

In the style of Neil deGrasse Tyson's Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (2017), this slim volume is full of scientific wonders. . . . Readers will find themselves marveling at the incredible journey we have taken to become the preeminent life-form on our planet.-- "Booklist"

About the Author

Silvana Condemi, a paleoanthropologist, is the research director of CNRS, the largest French public scientific research organization, at Aix-Marseille University. Fran ois Savatier is a journalist for the magazine Pour la Science (the French edition of Scientific American), where he focuses on the science of the past. Their previous book is the award-winning Neanderthal, My Brother.

More on this Book

A concise, illustrated update on our earliest ancestors, the first sapiens-and on how (and when) we distinguished ourselves.Prehistory is changing quickly: Thanks to progress in genetics and dating methods, we now know more than ever about our ancient relatives. A POCKET HISTORY OF HUMAN EVOLUTION will bring us up to date on the exploits of Homo erectus and ergaster, the Neanderthals, Denisovans, and others. (Hint: There was a lot more crossbreeding than previously supposed.) These latest discoveries have only spurred more questions. Lauded paleoanthropologist Silvana Condemi and science journalist Fran ois Savatier consider: What accelerated Homo sapiens' evolution - and left us the sole surviving species among many ancient bipedal "humans"? Was it tools, our 'large' brain, language, or empathy? Their conclusions are likely to startle (and inspire a new appreciation for the human foot).Condemi and Savatier also look to the future of our strange species - migratory, social animals with a rapidly expanding population, who have transformed our world forever. By taking stock of our ancestors, we can better understand ourselves.