The First Humans

Author : Frederick E. Grine,John G Fleagle,Richard E. Leakey
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 220 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2009-05-24
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781402099809

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The First Humans by Frederick E. Grine,John G Fleagle,Richard E. Leakey Pdf

There are some issues in human paleontology that seem to be timeless. Most deal with the origin and early evolution of our own genus – something about which we should care. Some of these issues pertain to taxonomy and systematics. How many species of Homo were there in the Pliocene and Pleistocene? How do we identify the earliest members the genus Homo? If there is more than one Plio-Pleistocene species, how do they relate to one another, and where and when did they evolve? Other issues relate to questions about body size, proportions and the functional adaptations of the locomotor skeleton. When did the human postcranial “Bauplan” evolve, and for what reasons? What behaviors (and what behavioral limitations) can be inferred from the postcranial bones that have been attributed to Homo habilis and Homo erectus? Still other issues relate to growth, development and life history strategies, and the biological and archeological evidence for diet and behavior in early Homo. It is often argued that dietary change played an important role in the origin and early evolution of our genus, with stone tools opening up scavenging and hunting opportunities that would have added meat protein to the diet of Homo. Still other issues relate to the environmental and climatic context in which this genus evolved.

Author : Göran Burenhult
Publisher : Harper San Francisco
Page : 246 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : Agriculture, Prehistoric
ISBN : UCSC:32106010184171

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The First Humans by Göran Burenhult Pdf

Examines theories of evolution, the Great Apes, the origins of language, extinct species, and the global expansion that precipitated adaptation and diversity.

Author : Rosen Publishing Group,Various
Publisher : Rosen Young Adult
Page : 64 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2016-07-15
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1477785523

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The First Humans and Early Civilizations by Rosen Publishing Group,Various Pdf

The earliest stages of human history and civilization come alive in this intriguing and revelatory investigation of the evolution of humans, as well as the development of communities from our prehuman ancestors, such Homo habilis, to Homo sapiens. This engaging series focuses on cultural and technological developments throughout human evolution and culminates in an examination of civilizations around the Fertile Crescent.

Author : Ann Gibbons
Publisher : Anchor
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2007-04-10
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781400076963

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The First Human by Ann Gibbons Pdf

In this dynamic account, award-winning science writer Ann Gibbons chronicles an extraordinary quest to answer the most primal of questions: When and where was the dawn of humankind?Following four intensely competitive international teams of scientists in a heated race to find the “missing link”–the fossil of the earliest human ancestor–Gibbons ventures to Africa, where she encounters a fascinating array of fossil hunters: Tim White, the irreverent Californian who discovered the partial skeleton of a primate that lived 4.4 million years ago in Ethiopia; French paleontologist Michel Brunet, who uncovers a skull in Chad that could date the beginnings of humankind to seven million years ago; and two other groups–one led by zoologist Meave Leakey, the other by British geologist Martin Pickford and his French paleontologist partner, Brigitte Senut–who enter the race with landmark discoveries of their own. Through scrupulous research and vivid first-person reporting, The First Human reveals the perils and the promises of fossil hunting on a grand competitive scale.

Author : The Diagram Group
Publisher : Infobase Publishing
Page : 113 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Fossil hominids
ISBN : 9781438122410

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Life on Earth by The Diagram Group Pdf

A guide to the earliest humans, including what defines a human, how humans developed over time, what prehistoric humans' daily lives were like, and how scientists have learned about them.

Author : Rebecca Stefoff
Publisher : Marshall Cavendish
Page : 116 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 0761441840

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First Humans by Rebecca Stefoff Pdf

This series takes readers on a journey through the evolutionary history of humans.

Author : Herbert Thomas
Publisher : Thames & Hudson
Page : 159 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 1995
Category : Anthropology
ISBN : 0500300569

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The First Humans by Herbert Thomas Pdf

Who are we? Where did we come from? What makes us human? The whole puzzle of our early life on earth is gradually being pieced together from fragments of bone, skulls and primitive tools dispersed throughout the world. The trail leads back nearly five million years. Here is a history of human evolution that reveals the very latest finds and thinking - discoveries that can help us to understand our past, our present and even future.

Author : Bo Gräslund
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2005-10-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9781134261345

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Early Humans and Their World by Bo Gräslund Pdf

Summarizing modern research on early hominid evolution from the apes six million years ago to the emergence of modern humans, this book is the first to present a synthetic discussion of many aspects of early human life.

Author : Brian Fagan
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2010-06-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781608191673

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Cro-Magnon by Brian Fagan Pdf

A Los Angeles Times Bestseller New York Times best-selling author Brian Fagan explores the world of the Cro-Magnons--the mysterious, little-known race, famous for its cave paintings, that survived the Ice Age and became the ancestors of today's humans. They survived by their wits in a snowbound world, hunting, and sometimes being hunted by, animals many times their size. By flickering firelight, they drew bison, deer, and mammoths on cavern walls- vibrant images that seize our imaginations after thirty thousand years. They are known to archaeologists as the Cro-Magnons-but who were they? Simply put, these people were among the first anatomically modern humans. For millennia, their hunter-gatherer culture flourished in small pockets across Ice Age Europe, the distant forerunner to the civilization we live in now. Bestselling author Brian Fagan brings these early humans out of the deep freeze with his trademark mix of erudition, cutting-edge science, and vivid storytelling. Cro-Magnon reveals human society in its infancy, facing enormous environmental challenges from glaciers, predators, and a rival species of humans-the Neanderthals. Cro-Magnon captures the adaptability that has made humans an unmatched success as a species. Living on a frozen continent with only crude tools, Ice Age humans survived and thrived. In these pages, we meet our most remarkable ancestors.

Author : Brian Hare,Vanessa Woods
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780399590665

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Survival of the Friendliest by Brian Hare,Vanessa Woods Pdf

A powerful, counterintuitive new theory of human nature arguing that our evolutionary success depends on our ability to be friendly--from a pair of trailblazing scientists and New York Times bestselling authors. For most of the approximately 200,000 years that our species has existed, we shared the planet with at least four other types of humans. They were smart, they were strong, and they were inventive. Neanderthals even had the capacity for spoken language. But, one by one, our hominid relatives went extinct. Why did we thrive? In delightfully conversational prose and based on years of his own original research, Brian Hare, professor in the department of evolutionary anthropology and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University, and his wife Vanessa Woods, a research scientist and award-winning journalist, offer a powerful, elegant new theory called "self-domestication" which suggests that we have succeeded not because we were the smartest or strongest but because we are the friendliest. This explanation flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Since Charles Darwin wrote about "evolutionary fitness," scientists have confused fitness with strength, tactical brilliance, and aggression. But what helped us innovate where other primates did not is our knack for coordinating with and listening to others. We can find common cause and identity with both neighbors and strangers if we see them as "one of us." This ability makes us geniuses at cooperation and innovation and is responsible for all the glories of culture and technology in human history. But this gift for friendliness comes at cost. If we perceive that someone is not "one of us," we are capable of unplugging them from our mental network. Where there would have been empathy and compassion, there is nothing, making us both the most tolerant and the most merciless species on the planet. To counteract the rise of tribalism in all aspects of modern life, Hare and Woods argue, we need to expand our empathy and friendliness to include people who aren't obviously like ourselves. Brian Hare's groundbreaking research was developed in close collaboration with Richard Wrangham and Michael Tomasello, giants in the field of cognitive evolution. Survival of the Friendliest explains both our evolutionary success and our potential for cruelty in one stroke and sheds new light onto everything from genocide and structural inequality to art and innovation.

Author : Nick Merriman
Publisher : Knopf Books for Young Readers
Page : 63 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : Archaeology
ISBN : 0394922573

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Early Humans by Nick Merriman Pdf

Text and photographs present a description of early humans: their origins; their tools and weapons; how they hunted and foraged for food; and the role of family life, money, religion, and magic.

Author : Yuval Noah Harari
Publisher : Signal
Page : 512 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2014-10-28
Category : History
ISBN : 9780771038525

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Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari Pdf

NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Destined to become a modern classic in the vein of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Sapiens is a lively, groundbreaking history of humankind told from a unique perspective. 100,000 years ago, at least six species of human inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo Sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations, and human rights; to trust money, books, and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables, and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come? In Sapiens, Dr. Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical -- and sometimes devastating -- breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural, and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, palaeontology, and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come? Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power...and our future.

Author : National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 48 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Education
ISBN : 0309064066

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Science and Creationism by National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) Pdf

This edition of Science and Creationism summarizes key aspects of several of the most important lines of evidence supporting evolution. It describes some of the positions taken by advocates of creation science and presents an analysis of these claims. This document lays out for a broader audience the case against presenting religious concepts in science classes. The document covers the origin of the universe, Earth, and life; evidence supporting biological evolution; and human evolution. (Contains 31 references.) (CCM)

Author : Nicholas Harris
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 32 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 0760775281

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The First Humans by Nicholas Harris Pdf

Author : Richard Wrangham
Publisher : Profile Books
Page : 309 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2010-08-06
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781847652102

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Catching Fire by Richard Wrangham Pdf

In this stunningly original book, Richard Wrangham argues that it was cooking that caused the extraordinary transformation of our ancestors from apelike beings to Homo erectus. At the heart of Catching Fire lies an explosive new idea: the habit of eating cooked rather than raw food permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, helped structure human society, and created the male-female division of labour. As our ancestors adapted to using fire, humans emerged as "the cooking apes". Covering everything from food-labelling and overweight pets to raw-food faddists, Catching Fire offers a startlingly original argument about how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today. "This notion is surprising, fresh and, in the hands of Richard Wrangham, utterly persuasive ... Big, new ideas do not come along often in evolution these days, but this is one." -Matt Ridley, author of Genome