The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans by Yale University Press

	Title: The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans Purchase Item Manufacturer: Yale University Press List Price: $45.00 Our Price: $29.25
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The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans by Yale University Press One of many.
Discussions surrounding human origins have become increasingly complicated, but this book provides a useful means of looking at the variability that paleoanthropologists are finding in the fossil record. This doesn't mean that every word or species assignment is without debate, but it is a useful tool for looking at the variety of species that either share deep ancestry or are direct ancestors of modern human beings.
The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans by Yale University Press Interpreting facial details in reconstructions
This is a marvelous book and I will not give it fewer than 5 stars, despite my small criticism of it, which is that many of the reconstructions seem to closely resemble chimpanzees or gorillas until we get to the genus Homo when, voila!, they start to resemble people. For example, take a look at Paranthopus boisei on page 137. I don't doubt that the soft tissues were correctly placed. But what do you suppose this reconstruction would look like if the builders had gone to the other extreme and made it look more like Jack Palance instead of like a gorilla? Yes, it has a short face etc, not the extreme prognathism of a gorilla. There are two extremes in making reconstructions such as these---making them look human, or making them look like apes and P. boisei looks like something a gorilla could love. No one knows the actual state of affairs in these creatures from several million years ago. That's why these reconstructions are essentially artistic opinions (assuming the underlying meat is correctly placed). But why make most of them look so very apelike? An interesting digression on such reconstructions might be to make 3 versions, one looking deliberately apelike, one deliberately human-like, and one sort of a grand average. So what would P. boisei look like if his builders had tried to groom him so that he could ride the subway without causing phones to ring at the zoo? We will never know as long as he keeps getting dressed up like a gorilla. Maybe less facial hair is all that would be needed. And it would have been nice to see more of these reconstructions from different angles besides just the one that was provided in most instances.
The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans by Yale University Press extinct hominids
interesting book, written for a lay audience by experts in the field. Vivid reconstructions of some 20 extinct pre-humans, information about where they lived, fossil evidence, etc. Little molecular evidence.
The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans by Yale University Press Brilliant and beautiful
Brilliant and beautiful, this book may be helpful to those who find human evolution difficult to understand or accept. The artwork is spectacular and succeeds at bringing long-extinct hominids back from the dead. I highly recommend this book for both casual science fans and serious students of human evolution. I recently gave a guest lecture on early hominids at my children's school and showed the students some of the art from this book in addition to my own replica skulls. They were blown away. The story of our origins--as described by the evidence--is fascinating and irresistible to virtually everyone who has a curious mind. --Guy P. Harrison, author of 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God (Prometheus)
The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans by Yale University Press A catalogue of cousins
There's a great deal of information available to the interested seeker of human origins. What has been lacking is a good descriptive overview and logical arrangement of the fossils found. Sawyer and Deak have responded to that need with this volume. Arranged in order of the oldest to the youngest of fossil specimens, the authors summarise which parts have been uncovered. In addition, they further descriptions of the likelihood of bipedalism, the known locations with assumed roaming areas, the associated wildlife and climate information. A special feature presents the way the "man-ape" probably appeared in its natural habitat. The oldest fossils are very fragmentary and lead more to suggestions as to how they fit in the human lineage. Some clearly were successful creatures in their own right, but likely lie in a line that died out in time. Those aged pieces need further finds to establish their place - the chief reason the authors describe the probable range they inhabited. Later, more complete, fossils offer more information. The authors begin depicting fossil pieces in a restored placement with Australopithicus afarensis, the now-famous "Lucy" revealed by Don Johanson and his team in 1973. The authors provide an almost startling image of this hominid searching the savannah for her "lost daughter" - a very human characteristic. Laetoli's preserved footprints are described with the implications for how close to modern humans A. afarensis could stride. After "Lucy's" time, about 3.5 million years ago, hominids developed into many and varied types. Lucy's fossils were found in Ethiopia, but a million years later a new species, with robust jaws and bearing a crested cranium appeared. Paranthropus aethiopicus had nutcracker jaws and was more sturdily built than Lucy. Yet, in the same time frame, Lucy's likely direct successors also emerged. One of these may have been the first to apply tools to aid food processing. Far away in what is now South Africa, other branches of Lucy's clan may have evolved as a result of earlier forebears migrating. Within another half-million years, examples of hominids in the direct lineage to today's humans appear, only a short distance from the supposed range of Lucy's wanderings. Their descendents launched new migrations traced by finds to the east of their original homelands. The recent find near Dmanisi in Georgia provides a look at hominid life nearly 2 million years ago. Flaked stone, likely used for meat cutting, although no bones with cut marks have yet been revealed. A contemporary of the Georgian hominid wandered yet further east, typified by the skull and thigh bone excavated by Eugene Dubois in 1891. Homo habilis has been found in other sites, demonstrating its wandering habits. The most astonishing find outside our African origins is the small hominid, H. floresienses, discovered in a cave in Indonesia. Ultimately, of course, the sole survivor of hominid evolution, Homo sapiens, outlasted its many competitors. The last major contender alongside our species was Home neanderthalis, ranging from today's Middle East into Western Europe. The authors' coverage of this species is thorough, but not extravagant. Moving to our species, Sawyer and Deak provide a good overview of the factors used in classifying the fossils without greatly extending their coverage in comparison to the other topics. To conclude the book, they describe the techniques used in making the representative images of the various hominid species discussed in the text. The key point is how they developed the faces in the images. These stand in stark contrast to some of the historical illustrations of "early man" done earlier. This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in our ancestral past. Written in a straightforward manner, the authors give the available data, describing various speculations with care. They avoid dwelling on the many controversial questions that have plagued palaeoanthropology, and have no particular positions of their own to forward or defend. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans by Yale University Press Product Description
This book tells the story of human evolution, the epic of Homo sapiens and its colorful precursors and relatives. The story begins in Africa, six to seven million years ago, and encompasses twenty known human species, of which Homo sapiens is the sole survivor. Illustrated with spectacular, three-dimensional scientific reconstructions portrayed in their natural habitat developed by a team of physical anthropologists at the American Museum of Natural History and in concert with experts from around the world, the book is both a guide to extinct human species and an astonishing hominid family photo album. The Last Human presents a comprehensive account of each species with information on its emergence, chronology, geographic range, classification, physiology, lifestyle, habitat, environment, cultural achievements, co-existing species, and possible reasons for extinction. Also included are summaries of fossil discoveries, controversies, and publications. What emerges from the fossil story is a new understanding of Homo sapiens. No longer credible is the notion that our species is the end product of a single lineage, improved over generations by natural selection. Rather, the fossil record shows, we are a species with widely varied precursors, and our family tree is characterized by many branchings and repeated extinctions. Exhibition information: Photographs of most of the reconstructions that appear in this book will be featured in exhibits appearing in the new Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The opening of the Hall is planned for November 2006.