The Fossil Trail http://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Fossil-Trail-Ian-Tattersall/9780195367669

How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution

By Ian Tattersall

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 : Before Darwin; TIME AND THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE; ENTER THE ANTIQUARIANS; PALEONTOLOGY; NEANDERTHAL DEBUT ; Chapter 2 : Darwin and After; NATURAL SELECTION; EARLY DISQUISITIONS ON NEANDERTHALS; ANTIQUARIANISM TRANSFORMS INTO ARCHAEOLOGY; EVOLVING NOTIONS OF EARLY HUMANS ; Chapter 3 : Pithecanthropus; JAVA MAN; CHANGING VIEWS OF THE NEANDERTHALS ; Chapter 4 : The Early Twentieth Century; GENETICS AND SPECIES; THE HOMINID FOSSIL RECORD GROWS; DAWSON'S DAWN MAN; THE "NEANDERTHAL PHASE OF MAN" ; Chapter 5 : Out of Africa; AUSTRALOPITHECUS; PEKING MAN; BACK TO JAVA ; Chapter 6 : ... Always Something New; INTERNATIONAL ACCEPTANCE; A PROPHET IN HIS OWN COUNTRY ..; AFRICAN GENESIS; OLDUVAI GORGE; OUTSIDE AFRICA ; Chapter 7 : The Synthesis; A REMARKABLE CONVERGENCE; POPULATION THINKING; PALEOANTHROPOLOGY CAPITULATES; RADIOMETRIC DATING; THE RECORD EXPANDS AND STEREOTYPES FALL ; Chapter 8 : Olduvai Gorge; ZINJANTHROPUS; HANDY MAN ; Chapter 9 : Rama's Ape Meets the Mighty Molecule; A NEW HOMINID; A TOP-HEAVY EDIFICE; ENTER THE MOLECULES; WHAT IS A HOMINID? ; Chapter 10 : Omo and Turkana; HOMINID CATASTROPHISM AND THE SINGLE-SPECIES HYPOTHESIS; THE OMO AND ETHIOPIA; KOOBI FORA AND THE TURKANA BASIN; THE ARTIFACTUAL RECORD; MORE FROM KOOBI FORA; Chapter 11 : Hadar, Lucy and Laetoli; HADAR, LUCY AND THE FIRST FAMILY; BODO AND LAETOLI; ONE SPECIES OR TWO?; BIPEDS AND CLIMBERS?; WHY BIPEDALITY? ; Chapter 12 : Theory Intrudes; PHYLETIC GRADUALISM OR PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIA?; RECONSTRUCTING PHYLOGENY; SCENARIOS AND TREES ; Chapter 13 : Eurasia and Africa: Odds and Ends; THE CHINESE RECORD; HOMO HEIDELBERGENSIS; COMPLEX LIFEWAYS; ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRANSITION; EAST AND SOUTH ; Chapter 14 : Turkana and Olduvai - Again; THE "TURKANA BOY"; BACK TO OLDUVAI; THE UNTHINKABLE THOUGHT; THE BLACK SKULL; GRACILES AND ROBUSTS; FAUNAL TURNOVER ; Chapter 15 : The Cave-Man Vanishes; UNDERSTANDING THE CAVES; DIVERSE RECORDS; A COMPLEX PICTURE; EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY; OTHER INFLUENCES; THE NEANDERTHAL VIEW OF THE WORLD ; Chapter 16 : Candelabras and Continuity; THE MULTIREGIONAL MODEL; THE DIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE; A SINGLE ORIGIN; THE MIGHTY MITOCHONDRION; REFINEMENTS IN DATING; LEVANTINE COEXISTENCE ; Chapter 17 : Another Fin de Siecle; DIET AND ISOTOPES; NEANDERTHAL ENVIRONMENTAL PREFERENCES; THE NEANDERTHAL BODY; DNA FROM NEANDERTHALS; HYBRID RED HERRINGS; HITECH MORPHOMETRY; ATAPUERCA: A FOSSIL CORNUCOPIA; DIVERSITY AMONG EARLY EUROPEANS; OUT OF AFRICA FOR THE FIRST TIME; MOVING EAST; "AFRICAN HOMO ERECTUS": MORE DIVERSITY?; EARLY HOMO SAPIENS?; EVO-DEVO; A "HUMAN REVOLUTION"?; "ADAMS" AND "EVES"; THE MYSTERIOUS HOMINID OF FLORES ; Chapter 18 : Back to the Beginning; A VERITABLE MENU OF EARLIEST HOMINIDS; MILLENNIUM MAN; SAHELANTHROPUS; BACK TO KENYA; MORE ENTRANTS; HADAR AGAIN; A TALE OF TWO SKELETONS; A NEW "ROBUST"; ISOTOPES AGAIN; NEW AUSTRALOPITHS FROM ETHIOPIA; HOMO REVISITED; PROSPECTS ; Chapter 19 : So, Where Are We?; SYSTEMATICS - THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE HOMINIDS; BECOMING HUMAN

About the Author

Ian Tattersall is Curator of the Division of Anthropology and Co-Curator of the Spitzer Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History.

Reviews

This informative and highly readable introduction to paleoanthropology by the head of the anthropology department at the American Museum of Natural History surveys the major discoveries in hominid evolution (fossils and artifacts) and examines both past and present principal interpretations of this growing empirical evidence for the complex emergence of humankind. Important fossils from Olduvai and other sites are critically discussed in terms of modern hominid taxonomy within the framework of climatic fluctuations, environmental changes, and morphological variety (species diversity). Throughout this detailed story, Tattersall argues against both human orthogenesis and the one-species hypothesis for explaining hominid evolution. He focuses on australopithecine diversity and behavior, those questions still surrounding Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis, and the recent appearance of our own unique species in Africa. A fascinating and provocative overview of human paleontology that is highly recommended for all anthropology collections.-H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, N.Y.

Head of Manhattan's American Museum of Natural History's anthropology department, Tattersall here weaves a vigorous historical narrative of paleontologists' attempts to reconstruct human origins from the fossil record. Beginning with the unearthing of Neanderthals and ``Java Man,'' he carefully sifts through a remarkable succession of hominid finds from Africa, Eurasia, China, Indonesia and Israel, including Don Johanson's 1973 discovery in Ethiopia of ``Lucy,'' a 3.4-million-year-old female hominid skeleton, and the Leakey team's 1984 find, ``Turkana Boy,'' a 1.6-million-year-old Homo erectus skeleton uncovered in Kenya. Citing disagreements among scientists over interpretations of radiocarbon dating, comparative anatomy and biochemical techniques, Tattersall unreels a catalogue of paleoanthropological misidentifications, dogmas and misperceptions. He draws a hypothetical evolutionary tree that includes three genera of our hominid ancestors-Homo and Australopithecus (accepted by conventional wisdom) plus a new genus, Paranthropus-altogether embracing a dozen species leading to Homo sapiens. Illustrated. (Feb.)