Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

The Neandertal Enigma : Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origins

The Neandertal Enigma : Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origins

by James Shreeve

In search of the truth about the Neanderthals, Shreeve takes readers on a prehistoric journey as he examines the scientific evidence and addresses the controversy surrounding their fate. He offers a fascinating theory of what might have allowed two equally human species to share a moment in evolution history, as well as what may have led to the triumph of one and the poignant disappearance of the other.

The First Human

The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors

by Ann Gibbons

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... (more)

Ape Man: The Story of Human Evolution

by Rod Caird

Since Darwin dropped his bombshell of evolutionary theory, humans have been fascinated with our development from ape to man. This companion volume to the new four-part A&E series offers intriguing answers to questions about where we are going and what makes us human. 180 illustrations, many in color.

Publisher Photo Olduvai Gorge: Excavations in Beds III, IV and the Masek Beds, 1968-1971 (Olduvai Gorge)

Publisher Photo Olduvai Gorge: Excavations in Beds III, IV and the Masek Beds, 1968-1971 (Olduvai Gorge)

by Mary D. Leakey, Phillip V. Tobias, L. S. B. Leakey

At Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania, natural erosion exposed a series of superimposed geological beds containing rich artifacts and fossil assemblages spanning the past 1.8 million years. The site is famous as a result of excavations conducted there since 1951 under the direction of Mary Leakey and her husband, the late Louis Leakey. This book records the archaeological finds in the upper part of the Olduvai... (more)

A Theory of Human and Primate EvolutionColin P. Groves

A Theory of Human and Primate Evolution

by Colin P. Groves

This book examines the evidence of primate and human evolution in the light of new evolutionary models and advances in taxonomic theory. Dr. Groves discusses the "Nomogenesis" of Lev Berg and criticizes the cladistic school of taxonomy, adapting it in the light of theories of speciation. The result is a theory in which internal processes play a major role in human evolution and taxonomy becomes of major... (more)

The Emergence of ManJohn E Pfeiffer

The Emergence of Man

by John E Pfeiffer

The Wisdom of Bones: In Search of Human Origins

The Wisdom of Bones: In Search of Human Origins

by Alan Walker

"Fascinating. . . . As engaging an explanation of how scientists study fossil bones as any I have ever read." --John R. Alden, Philadelphia Inquirer In 1984 a team of paleoanthropologists on a dig in northern Kenya found something extraordinary: a nearly complete skeleton of Homo erectus, a creature that lived 1.5 million years ago and is widely thought to be the missing link between apes and humans. The remains... (more)

Java Man: How Two Geologists Changed the History of Human Evolution

Java Man: How Two Geologists Changed the History of Human Evolution

by Carl Celso Swisher, Roger Lewin

With their revolutionary discovery about human origins, a pair of maverick geologists single-handedly shook the foundations of science and philosophy. Here, for the first time, is the inside story. For much of the twentieth century, anthropologists believed in a simple, linear picture of evolution: the human family was born in Africa and remained there until Homo erectus, a relatively advanced form of human,... (more)

The Human Story: Where We Come From & How We Evolved

The Human Story: Where We Come From & How We Evolved

by Charles Lockwood

Anthropology professor Charles Lockwood tells the amazing story of human evolution in a concise and compelling introduction to all our ancestors and extinct relatives. He draws on the explosion of discoveries made over the past 20 years to demystify the fascinating cast of characters who hold the secret to our origins, and describes the main sites, individual fossils, key scientific breakthroughs, and latest... (more)

Handbook of Paleoanthropology: Vol I:Principles, Methods and Approaches Vol II:Primate Evolution and Human Origins Vol III:Phylogeny of Hominids

Handbook of Paleoanthropology: Vol I:Principles, Methods and Approaches Vol II:Primate Evolution and Human Origins Vol III:Phylogeny of Hominids

by Ian Tattersall

Paleoanthropology is perhaps the most multidisciplinary of all the sciences. Any complete account of the evolution and cultural and biological context of Homo sapiens must combine information from geology, paleoecology, primatology, evolutionary biology and a host of other fields. Above all, historical information needs to be combined with, and interpreted in the light of, what we know of the living world.... (more)

The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of HumankindRoger; Leakey, Richard Lewin

The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind

by Roger; Leakey, Richard Lewin

The Atlas of Early Man

by Jacquetta Hawkes

Essentials of Physical Anthropology

by Robert Jurmain

Origins Reconsidered In Search of What M

Origins Reconsidered In Search of What M

by Richard E. Leakey, Roger Lewin

Richard Leakey questions the widely accepted idea of a 2 million-year-old ancestry of hunters and gatherers - the men hunting, the women raising children - that is the basis of modern man's nuclear family, and asks why the first signs of humanity occurred a mere 15,000 years ago in the cave paintings of Lascaux. What was going on in the minds of men before that first recorded expression of art and humanity... (more)

From Lucy to Language: Revised, Updated, and Expanded

From Lucy to Language: Revised, Updated, and Expanded

by Donald C. Johanson

Since the original edition was published in 1996, paleoanthropologists have made several important finds. Among them are Sahelanthropus tchadensis, a seven-million-year-old specimen uncovered in Chad that has features that are part ape, part hominid, and Homo floresiensis, diminutive people who apparently were not Homo sapiens and who lived on the Indonesian island of Flores as recently as 13,000 years ago.... (more)

Human origins, by S. LaingS. Laing

Human origins, by S. Laing

by S. Laing

The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

by Matt Ridley

Referring to Lewis Carroll's Red Queen from Through the Looking-Glass , a character who has to keep running to stay in the same place, Matt Ridley demonstrates why sex is humanity's best strategy for outwitting its constantly mutating internal predators. The Red Queen answers dozens of other riddles of human nature and culture -- including why men propose marriage, the method behind our maddening notions of... (more)

Extinct Humans

by Ian Tattersall

An assessment of the many species of humans - all but one of them now extinct - that have existed during the six-million-year-history of the hominid family Scientists have long envisioned the human"family tree" as a straight-line progression from the apelike australopithecines to the enigmatic Homo habilis to the famous Neanderthals, culminating in us, Homo sapiens. But this model is unlike the evolutionary... (more)

Before the Dawn

Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors

by Nicholas Wade

Based on a groundbreaking synthesis of recent scientific findings, an acclaimed New York Times science reporter tells a bold and provocative new story of the history of our ancient ancestors and the evolution of human nature Just in the last three years a flood of new scientific findings-driven by revelations discovered in the human genome-has provided compelling new answers to many long-standing mysteries... (more)

The Origin of Humankind (Science Masters Series)

The Origin of Humankind (Science Masters Series)

by Richard Leakey

“The name Leakey is synonymous with the study of human origins,” wrote The New York Times. The renowned family of paleontologists—Louis Leakey, Mary Leakey, and their son Richard Leakey—has vastly expanded our understanding of human evolution. The Origin of Humankind is Richard Leakey’s personal view of the development of Homo Sapiens. At the heart of his new picture of evolution is the introduction of a... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: palaeoanthropology

by James Shreeve

The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors

by Ann Gibbons

by Rod Caird

by Mary D. Leakey, Phillip V. Tobias, L. S. B. Leakey

by Colin P. Groves

by John E Pfeiffer

by Alan Walker

by Carl Celso Swisher, Roger Lewin

by Charles Lockwood

by Ian Tattersall

by Roger; Leakey, Richard Lewin

by Jacquetta Hawkes

by Robert Jurmain

by Richard E. Leakey, Roger Lewin

by Donald C. Johanson

by S. Laing

by Matt Ridley

by Ian Tattersall

Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors

by Nicholas Wade

by Richard Leakey