Product Description
1999. Smithsonian Contributions to PaleobiologyNo. 89. 344 pages. ... Read more

Book Description
The last few years have witnessed an unparalleled rate of discoveries of early birds and their dinosaurian predecessors. Written by a recognised authority in the field, Glorified Dinosaurs: The Origin and Early Evolution of Birds provides a comprehensive summary of these discoveries and addresses the fascinating topic of how modern birds evolved from fearsome dinosaurs akin to the celebrated Velociraptor. The book focuses on an evolutionary approach and presents current research and fossil discoveries. The title includes coloured photographs of fossils and fossil localities, many of which have been rarely reproduced elsewhere.

Glorified Dinosaurs: The Origin and Early Evolution of Birds is an invaluable resource for every palaeontologist, ornithologist, evolutionary biologist, geology and life sciences student. It is also an exciting reading for people interested in dinosaurs and avian evolution and for all those with a general interests in the topic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A superb synthesis of avian evolution
A wonderful, fully up-to-date synthesis of everything that's known about bird evolution.The writing is clear and engaging and the illustrations stunning.The level of technical discussion is perfect -- not too heavy and not too light.This is the standard to which all other evolutionary overviews should aspire.

Great Pix, good read, complete coverage, expert author.
Most books on evolution don't talk about the evidence in enough detail that you can really understand it, let alone be convinced by it.This is a tragic waste since there really is good fossil evidence for evolution, but the experts just can't be bothered to talk about it.There have been 3 recent exceptions to this rule: T. S. Kemp's The Origin and Evolution of Mammals,Jennifer A. Clack's Gaining Ground (origin of amphibians from fish), and now this book, which is the only one really accessible by the general public.Bird fossils is a field which have really exploded recently, I read lot's of science mags and try to keep up, but this book has tons of stuff I hadn't even heard about.The title of the review really says it all, I just want to add that the old debate about whether birds started as gliding tree dwellers or as two legged runners that flapped to go faster may have been finally settled.I won't give away the ending, though.Creationists will probably pay this book the supreme complicment of ignoring it completely, anyone with an open mind will be very impressed.

The best handbook on feathered dinosaurs and early birds
Luis Chiappe is one of the leading paleontologists working on Jurassic and Cretaceous predatory dinosaurs and primitive birds. In his "Glorified Dinosaurs" he summarises in clear words the arguments supporting the idea of close relationships between these two groups, but also discusses the alternative theories on the origin of birds and their flight. The illustrations - photographs, color drawings, reconstructions and diagrams - are of extraordinary quality. Photographs of virtually all the most important relevant fossils, such as Archaeopteryx and perfectly preserved feathered dinosaurs and birds from Liaoning in China, are provided. The book gives a very interesting insight into the history of discoveries and evolution of concepts. It is an invaluable tool for all the vertebrate paleontology teachers and a thrilling lecture for non-professionalists.

Excellent book
This book covers all the latest research, with readable text and splendid artwork and photography. It is a deluxe must-have book for dinosaur and paleo-bird enthusiasts everywhere.

The most Authoritarian Book on the Subject
I think it has come to be pretty well accepted by most scientists that the songbird outside your window is a descendent of the dinasaurs that once reigned supreme.

This book by a renowned paleornithologist, gives the best summary yet of how the dinosaurs evolved into birds. It begins with the development of feathers, and continues with the earliest fossil samples, including the famous archaeopteryx. (As best I can tell there is only one archaeopteryx in the United States at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, Thermopolis. At this date the display for these fossils is being built. It should be open sometime in May, 2007, but check with them first.)

This book is current as to early 2007, reflecting all of the latest findings (especially in China) of the steps in the descent of the modern bird.

This book is lavisly illustrated with hundreds of illustrations from color photographs of fossils to line drawings showing the variations in skeletal structure as the birds developed. It uses high quality paper, printing and binding to insure a long useful life. ... Read more

Product Description
Thoroughly updated and reorganized, Strickberger's Evolution, Fourth Edition, presents an overview of prevailing evidence and theories about evolution by discussing how the world and its organisms arose and changed over time. Remaining consistent with Strickberger's engaging writing style and awareness of the history of the study of evolution, the authors carefully unfold: (i) The evidence for evolution as a science, (ii) The enormity of time, including cosmological and geological evolution and its impact on life; (iii) The origin of life on Earth; (iv) The diversity, relationships and evolution of organisms; (v) How genes, cells, and embryonic development provide the organic framework by which evolution occurs; (vi) How populations may remain stable for long periods of time or give rise to new species; (vii) How evolution and society (including religion) impact one another. Throughout, the emphasis is on analysis of the evidence for the fact of evolution and the theories explaining evolution at all levels from molecules to populations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Very good evolution book for undergrads
I took an evolution class with Ridley's Evolution as the textbook.It was way too much and I found reading tedious.A few years later I came across this Evolution and I thought " I wish I had this book as an undergrad"Strickberger's Evolution is a much easier read.There are plenty of diagrams and figures and they are explained fairly well.This book almost reads like a general biology book, because it gives a nice review of general botany, zoology and genetics.Highly recommended to any professors that are looking for a good evolution text for their undergrad class.

Terrible textbook for beginners
I don't have a lot of science background but I had to take an evolution class that required this book.I was excited to learn about the subject but this book is not written for beginners.It is written for people who already have a strong background in science.For me, the book went way too deep into the different aspects of evolution and was downright confusing most of the time.

Useful for biology majors
Strickberger is famous in the genetical studies of Drosophila and his works primarily focus on phylogenetics and traditional genetic data interpretation.

In lieu of his speciality he has done a remarkable job composing this book as it makes a smooth, gradual transition from traditional evolutionary biology covering topics such as the endosymbiont theory, chemosynthetic origins of life, various theories of life and its formation to Linnean and Cladistic (anatomical and physiological classification) and finally into the real world with modern day molecular clock concepts and phylogenetic analysis.

Our focus in Biology 114 were all of these and the book was a fountain of knowledge in these regards. The field of study is generally boring, and I myself found this genre of biology to be more along the lines of some history class than a science subject.

On consideration of my negative bias of this whole topic, I still found this book to be remarkable. It had made a subject which I was not fond of (I didnt hate it but I didnt like it either) and made is refreshing. Strickberger's conversational style of writing and simplicity should by dually noted, the guy has a sense of humour what will make an individual crack up whilst reading his book. He is also highly informative and his explanations are not lost when reading as he joins ideas so coherently that it is hard to find gaps in the concepts he presents. This is by the way a book that ranges from explaining the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology, creationism vs evolution and how DNA fits in with respect to the three major biological domains.

The subject of Eukarya, Prokarya and Archia is discussed very well, a lot of focus is placed on the Eukaryotic paradigm of evolution since it is much more simpler to explain concepts with examples that an individual can associate with.

So unless you have a microbiology PhD or are microscopic yourself it is safe to say that Eukarya is most ideal :)

Strickberger has some philosophical differences to myself however I have learnt a significant amount from his text and found it useful in my further studies of Genetics at 200 (sophomore or second year) levels. How he explains electrophoresis is better than most analytical genetics textbooks, and this all packed in one cute package.

The bottom of the pages have this interesting lizard animation that when you flick the pages you see it move and eat a fly. I found that entertaining for the whole semester lol.

An excellent resource
This is a superb textbook. Where it surpasses the most widely known textbook in the field (Futuyma)is in its detailed listing of original source material after every chapter. This makes it an excellent springboard into serious background study for virtually any aspect of evolution or the topics surrounding evolution.

Excellent
I used the second edition of this book and have not had a chance to view the third, but it no doubt is an excellent and comprehensive overview of the theory of evolution, just as in the second. In the edition I used, there are many fine diagrams illustrating the main points and also exercises at the end of each chapter to reinforce the concepts presented. Space probibits a detailed review so I will list only the areas in the book that I found exceptionally well-written: 1. The philosophical and religious issues in evolution theory. 2. The history of biology before Darwin. 3. The comparison between the pangenesis and germ plasm theories in the formation of a human. 4. The table on the comparison of views on variation and heredity. 5. The clarification by the author that evolution is primarily a historical process, and not arising by a lucky combination of events. 6. The general scheme of protein synthesis in Escherchia coli. 7. The schematic diagram outlining the mutual dependence of information carried by nucleotide sequences and function governed by proteins. 8. The dicussion on the "RNA world". 9. The universality of the genetic code. 10. The evolution of the genetic code. 11. The discussion on exceptions to Mendelism. 12. The highly interesting discussion on the evolution of sex-determining systems. 13. The discussion on sickle cell mutation. 14. Evolutionary solutions to problems of locomotion. 15. The evolution of the human brain. 15. Conservation of gene frequencies and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. 16. The treatment of adaptive landscapes showing adaptive heights of different possible genotypes. ... Read more

Book Description
The family Equidae have an extensive fossil record spanning the past 58 million years, and the evolution of the horse has frequently been used as a classic example of long-term evolution.In recent years, however, there have been many important discoveries of fossil horses, and these, in conjunction with such new methods as cladistics, and techniques such as precise geochronology, have allowed us to achieve a much greater understanding of the evolution and biology of this important group.This book synthesizes the large body of data and research relevant to an understanding of fossil horses from several disciplines including biology, geology and paleontology. Using horses as the central theme, the author weaves together in the text such topics as modern geochronology, paleobiogeography, climate change, evolution and extinction, functional morphology, and population biology during the Cenozoic period. This book will be exciting reading for researchers and graduate students in vertebrate paleontology, evolution, and zoology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Horses and Evolution
The horse is often cited as one of the shining examples of evolution.It is even more often cited by CreationISTs and Intelligent Design proponents as an example of the folly of "evolutionists".CreationISTs consistently misquote, misreprensent and fabricate their arguments about horse evolution.

MacFadden's book is not strictly about the evolution of horses.Individual specimens are not cited, measurements are not provided, and character matrices are absent.Strictly speaking, it is a book about evolution, which just happens to use the author's extensive knowledge of fossil horses as its exemplars.

MacFadden discusses the nature of paleontology and the nature of fossils.He talks about how we erect a chronological structure for our fossils.He explicates various evolutionary processes, including variation, speciation and extinction. Functional morphology, population dynamics, ecology - all are described in terms which the non-specialist can appreciate, and are illustrated using the fossil record of horses.

For those who struggle daily against the incursion of religion into the science classroom, I cannot imagine a better preparation than a careful reading of this book. For anyone interested in learning just what a paleontologist does it provides a wide-based introduction.High school students will find it fascinating; it could be used as an excellent text for a college level course in evolutionary biology, and vertebrate paleontologists will find it a welcome state-of-the-art summary of what we know about the evolution of the horse.

My go-to reference book!
This is the book that I recommend highly to our journal readers. I've been using it for reference myself since it was published. Information about the evolution of the horse's foot is my area of interest, so I cannot really comment on other aspects of the book. We cite this book frequently and I am amazed at how many people (and academics) in the horse field still don't know about it. I'm trying to change that!

Fran Jurga
Hoofcare & Lameness: Journal of Equine Foot Science

Best fossil horse book out there
I'm a novice trying to understand the incredibly complex history, 58 million years, of the horse. I went on a dig and had the fun of finding bones and teeth from Miocene thru Pleistocene horses. I had a lot of questions after I got home about various issues raised by what we found. This book answered them and more. It's a real scientist's book, not a coffee table book, so it takes some concentrated reading, but I learned things that allowed me to go the natural history museum and perceive the fine points in the display. There were interesting asides also about the perspectives of scientists from the last few centuries, and earlier graphics to compare to new ones illustrating how the understanding of evolution has changed over the years. I'm going on another dig and this time I may know what I'm looking at.

Primarily for the specialist
I got this book brand new for 50 pence as apparently the book had no buyers.

For 10,000 years human civilization depended on horses and unsurprisingly horse evolution was a hot scientific topic at a time when people had no faster means of personal transport.History and its emperors are littered with tales of the horse and the equine symbollism in war and heroism is still with us.Given such a magical subject McFadden's book represents a somewhat staid academic account in the style of a scientific paper.Peppered with many references McFadden treats the reader like an academic used to such presentation and fails to enliven his topic.He touches all too briefly on the cultural importance of the horse and the book lacks any decent illustrations save several charts and technical drawings.

McFadden has certainly put in a great deal of hard work and covers many topics from the history of the study of horse evolution to geneology, geological time and the work he and his co-workers have produced.The book is too specific on the Equidae and does not deal adequately with recently extinct members of this family like the quagga and prehistoric species.Nor does it explain clearly why horses may have dissapeared from the Americas.Parts of the book, e.g., the limb locking mechanism were for me hard to follow.The book is afraid of speculation.

It provides ample materials and references to the student and to the paleontologist and is a good textbook.It fails to dramatise its subject and to attract a "lay audience".We are not really treated to what makes horses so special but to its credit it represents a highly authoritative and up to (its) date digest. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (66)

Evolution is TRUE no matter WHAT you say!
I am not a biologist, but I have a degree and am a fairly well read guy. I found this book quite invigorating and accessible to non-scientists such as myself. One of the most striking things I have discovered about the vehement critiques of this book both at the Amazon website is the alarming degree of hatred and resentment that has been displayed by Gish's fellow scientists. Now, whether Gish is right or wrong is beside the point when one just considers how his attackers have chosen to respond to his book; using mere ad hominum tactics does not instill in me a sense of confidence in Gish's adversaries' actually knowing what they are talking about. After all, when one feels compelled to do nothing more than hurl insults at the author of a book instead of actually taking the time to engage the argument of the book, that tells me that the critic has an insecurity complex. And that is precisely what the majority of Gish's peers have done; they have basically said "How DARE he challenge Darwinian natural selection? " As the late Carl Sagan said so vociferously so many times, science is SUPPOSED to be an OPEN FORUM for discussion. No matter how smart a person is or what his or her credentials are, no one view is supposed to be categorically accepted or categorically rejected without due process. Categorically rejecting Gish's theory and trying to attack him personally tells me just how little so many of these "professional"scientists actually know about science.

Recently I read a critique about Michael Behe's book, who wrote about the Wistar Institute.

It addresses all of the reviewers who complained that Gish did not present his case to his scientific colleagues but instead wrote a book for the general public & thereby bypassed his colleagues. Well, I have a question for you: how many of you Darwinists have heard of the Wistar Institute? I would imagine very few. I have read about it elsewhere in other books & have always found it curious that so few people are aware of this discussion from the late 1960s. What Wistar was was a forum that put together many of the world's best biologists together with the world's best mathmaticians. It was designed to prove the mathmatcial validity of Darwinian natural selection. It was, however, a complete distaster. The odds proved so enormous that Darwinism seemed to be mathmatically impossible. Wistar was thereby shoved into the closet & hidden because it was an embarrasment to the Darwinists. Now, I ask the question: was Wistar bad science(like so many evolutionists have called Gish's book?). If so, WHY? One thing is for certain; nobody can accuse the scientists involved in Wistar to be Creationists - they were atheists to a last man, for heaven's sake. It was most definetly not a conspiracy in which the outcome was jury-rigged. Now, for all I know, some reason may preclude mathmatics from being a reliable tool to use in discussions of Darwinian natural selection. But if so, it must be PROVED thus. To date, all I have read of this critique of Darwinism have been strawman arguments that state that: well, just because it is highly improbable does not mean it can't happen by chance. After all, what are the odds of getting a winning hand in a poker game? Arguments like these (most famously instituted by pro-Darwinians such as Doolittle) grossly miss the point. The point is not that it is highly improbable but rather that the odds are so astronomical as to make the plausibility impossible. Now, to give an example: according to the laws of quantum mechanics, if all of the atoms on the moon had exactly the same spin at exactly the same second, the moon COULD leave it's orbit from the earth. This is a probabalistic fact. However, the point is, it WON'T. Even though it is mathmatically possible, it is realistically impossible because the moon has too many atoms to make this feat plausible. The same goes for the odds of Darwinian evolution happening just so in the mere 4 & a half billion years (or so) that the earth has been around. Now, I ask the question, yea hardcore Darwinists: why is it that the Wistar Institute does not warrant even so much as a footnote on any collegiate or high school biology text in the world? After all, if it had shown so much as a shred of evidence that Darwinism was mathmatically acceptable, I GUARANTEE you that it would be in EVERY student's biological textbook and would be as familiar to the layman's vocabulary as Einstein's theory of Relativity. Is this not a double-standard? If the scientists at Wistar were wrong (they could have been) then they must be PROVEN wrong. However, after 30 years, as MIT theoretical physicist Gerald Schoeder has attested, the odds have if anything gone UP. I find it rather fascinating that the same neo-Darwinists who find their paradigm so mathematically credible do not stay up at night with dark thoughts about the moon leaving the orbit of the Earth. So, where am I going with this, you ask? Well, this is my point: if the scientific community is and was unwilling to accept the findings of it's own old-boy-club happy-as-can-be atheists, how in the world do you expect them to pay attention to a molecular biologist who dares to mention the dirty G word? I think that Gish deserves some slack on this one. That is, unless you believe in the double-standards that Sagan so vehemently wanted to jettison from the realm of science....

Quit slinging mud, and give an honest review.
Lets see, every unfavorable review I've read on this book has been written to Slam the Author with Ad Hoc arguments instead of presenting anything resembling a true scientific rebuttle.It seems appearent to me that those who don't like the book are forced to face their fears that there might truly be a God out there who is going to hold them accountable for their sins, and thus, they squirm, writhe, and spew out every angry, hateful, unfounded, foolish, and truly unscientific thought in their head.

They hate the book, and Author, because the Author favors Creationism, as does the fossil record (the undistorted one not taught in public schools). Their arguments are geared twards religion, even though the books topic is of scientific nature. Incedently, there is nothing that an Atheist thinks about, writes about, eats - sleeps - breaths -and p$$$s about, more than religion, namely Christianity. Atheism (in my opinion) is an obsession with religion, namely Christianity, though an Atheist will never be honest, or perceptive enough to realize their disfunctionality.

This book is well written, researched, outrighlty shows the falicies, and falsehoods of Evolution -in the words of the Evolutionists themselves.The pages are littered with references to actual evolutionary textbooks, written by devout Evolutionist. Their own words condemn them.That is what I find most interesting about this book -and I know it must gaul Evolutionists / Atheist something terrible!

I only wish that there were more illustrations, and diagrams detailing such things as (the anatomy of reptiles vs. amphibians vs. fish vs. birds vs. mamals). All in all, I find the book well researched, and well presented, but it takes more than a Jr. High reading ability to understand, assimilate, and enjoy it. Perhapps that's why most evolution supporters don't like it.The book requires a true, honest scientific mind to objectively read and understand it. Evolutionists are hypochritically looking at it through their own religious dogma.

In Closing, I want to point out that those persons whove assigned one or two stars to this book, and used Ad Hoc arguments have truly helped the least amount of people, as opposed to those who've given their honest opinions. Check the numbers for yourselves, numbers don't lie.Meanwhile, if your reading ability is good, and above the average Evolutionist, than I suggest that you puruse this book before you decide to buy it to make certain that you'll really enjoy it. It is one of the best I've read, so far on the subject -and I do read all things critically, and so should you -researching what you read. Then, you'll understand just how absurd evolution really is, and why the FOSSILS STILL SAY "NO!!!!!"

Dear Travis
Einstein's Relativity theories have had so many holes poked in them that they're starting to look like Swiss cheese and we have Quantum Physics to thank for it. Please refrain from putting them in the same context.

Stupid and dishonest, typical for Gish
Gish recently retired, so let's take one last look at one of his most popular books, Evolution? The Fossils Say No! (ETFSN).

Throughout his creationist career, Gish was a prime example of the "lying for Jesus" strategy. ETFSN contains many examples of Gish's legendary dishonesty.

Let's start with Gish's ancient quotes and references.ETFSN, copyright 1995, has over 75 citations and/or quotations from 1970 or earlier!That's pathetic.

It also calls a 31-year old study on radiometric dating "recent."That's blatantly dishonest.

In debates in the '70s and `80s, Gish claimed that the geologic column is based on the assumption of evolution, but in 1982 Chris McGowan challenged him with a geology book written before Darwin had even been born, showing essentially the same geologic column used today.Faced with this evidence, Gish admitted his error and withdrew the argument.So, that seems reasonable.Gish made an innocent mistake, admitted the error, and withdrew the argument.End of story, right?Not quite.Despite having admitted that the argument was wrong, Gish continued using it in subsequent debates and included it again in ETFSN!That's contemptible.

Gish also makes numerous mistakes.For example, he insists that "fully functional" anatomical features, like feathers and wings, can't evolve step by step, and in fact would be completely useless in less than "fully functional" form.But recent fossil discoveries show ancient dinosaurs with very primitive feathers, little more than fuzzy hairs.Later there are dinosaurs with fluffy, not aerodynamic, feathers.Only much later do we finally find fully aerodynamic feathers on reptilian-looking birds.So fossils actually say YES to evolution!

Wings can exist in less than "fully functional" form, too.Richard Dawkins points out that some frogs use webbed feet for gliding, tree-snakes with flattened bodies can maneuver through the air, and some squirrels have flaps along their bodies for gliding.Not only are animals with half a wing common in nature, so are animals with a third of a wing, a fourth of a wing, or even less!

But even more critical than his many mistakes, Gish simply can't be trusted to tell the truth.Richard Trott reports a whole series of falsehoods by Gish during a 1994 talk at Rutgers.For example, Gish stated that there are no fossil precursors to the dinosaur Triceratops.In reality there are well known precursors, Monoclonius and Protoceratops, which appear in proper sequence in the fossil record and show the expected change in body size, number of horns, etc.Gish also indicated that all three ceratopsians were contemporaneous.In reality, Protoceratops came first, followed by Monoclonius, followed by Triceratops.Trott's article exposing Gish's falsehoods prompted a reply from Gish which contained still more dishonest statements!

Joyce Arthur reports another series of Gish falsehoods.In the 1979 version of ETFSN, Gish claimed that Dubois concealed his discovery of Wadjak Man for about 30 years.But in 1982 C. Loring Brace told Gish in a debate that Dubois had actually published, not one, but two reports about Wadjak Man shortly after its discovery.Nevertheless, Gish repeated the same falsehood in Evolution: The Challenge of the Fossil Record (1985) and again in a 1992 debate with Karl Fezer.Fezer even provided Gish with the references for Dubois's publications on Wadjak Man, but Gish repeated the same falsehood yet again in ETFSN. Arthur pointed out Gish's falsehood again in 1996, but Gish repeated it yet again in a 1997 debate.Such blatant, repetitive dishonesty is simply contemptible.

In a 1983 PBS broadcast, Gish dismissed the significance of the similarity of chimp and human proteins, claiming that some bullfrog proteins were more similar to human proteins than chimp proteins were.Asked to identify the specific proteins, Gish promised to do so, claiming that he had them in his records, but he never produced them, including in ETFSN.In fact, there were no such proteins.Gish simply made them up.

Gish has such a poor reputation, that even other creationists frequently just ignore him.For example, in 1985 Gish classified Java Man, Peking Man, and ER 1470 as clearly ape; but in 1992 Lubenow classified all three as clearly human!

Gish recently retired from the ICR, which worked hand in hand with Gish in spreading falsehoods.The ICR promotes and sells Gish's trashy books, including his comic book "Have You Been Brainwashed?" The ICR continued selling the original version for at least nine more years after Gish himself admitted that it contained numerous errors.The ICR is still selling a revised, 1994 version, but even the revised version still contains some of the same errors as the original!So who is brainwashing whom???

These examples (and many others) show how dishonest Gish is and help explain why creationists publish their ideas in oral debates and lectures, or in popular books like ETFSN, not in professional science journals.In debates, if Gish is caught in a falsehood in front of one audience, that doesn't prevent him from repeating the same falsehood in front of other audiences.And in books like ETFSN, Gish knows he can get away with lying, because most creationists aren't likely to check his statements.Such blatant dishonesty can't survive the peer-review process of professional science journals, however, which is why creationists like Gish never publish their creationist trash there.

The book of lies~!
Shame on Gish. He once again throws together a manipulative pack of lies and distortions (and he knows it), with no factual evidence supporting his obsured ideas. I just can't see how this disgusting man still holds any bit of sway with anybody, but then again I've never undergone the misfortune of being brainwashed by a fundie church. Shame on you Gish, SHAME ON YOU~! ... Read more

Book Description

Over the past twenty years, paleontologists have made tremendous fossil discoveries, including fossils that mark the growth of whales, manatees, and seals from land mammals and the origins of elephants, horses, and rhinos. Today there exists an amazing diversity of fossil humans, suggesting we walked upright long before we acquired large brains, and new evidence from molecules that enable scientists to decipher the tree of life as never before.

The fossil record is now one of the strongest lines of evidence for evolution. In this engaging and richly illustrated book, Donald R. Prothero weaves an entertaining though intellectually rigorous history out of the transitional forms and series that dot the fossil record. Beginning with a brief discussion of the nature of science and the "monkey business of creationism," Prothero tackles subjects ranging from flood geology and rock dating to neo-Darwinism and macroevolution. He covers the ingredients of the primordial soup, the effects of communal living, invertebrate transitions, the development of the backbone, the reign of the dinosaurs, the mammalian explosion, and the leap from chimpanzee to human. Prothero pays particular attention to the recent discovery of "missing links" that complete the fossil timeline and details the debate between biologists over the mechanisms driving the evolutionary process.

Evolution is an absorbing combination of firsthand observation, scientific discovery, and trenchant analysis. With the teaching of evolution still an issue, there couldn't be a better moment for a book clarifying the nature and value of fossil evidence. Widely recognized as a leading expert in his field, Prothero demonstrates that the transformation of life on this planet is far more awe inspiring than the narrow view of extremists.

Customer Reviews (17)

Beneficial to Science Teachers
If you teach biology or am interested in learning more about evolution, this is a very benficial book for several reasons. I was expecting a book focusing mainly on the fossil evidence, but instead found content that included the nature of science, the basics of evolutionary theory, and discussion of many of the creationists claims. This part of the book was reinforcing to how and what I teach when I teach evolution to my high school students. Prothero is not shy, although polite, about suggestioning creationist idealogues like Hovind are either totally uninformed or dishonest. (Probably both.) It gave me some additional insight into the nature of the so-called "controversy" and gave me food for thought on how to enhance my lessons.Another reason why this book is a great read for any biology teacher or person interested in evolution is that the fossil evidence is broken down into organism groups and is HUGE!, with more fossils being found all of the time. By the end of this concise and clear presentation of the fossil evidence, one can't help but be overwhelmed by the abundance of transitionsl fossils in many of the groups. Clearly, Hamm, Hovind and others have not done their homework in regards to disputing the lack of transitional fossils. Prothero's book is well written and an easy read (although editing out those errors could have been better!). It has wonderful drawings, including clear sketches of family trees, and many excellent photos. For many reasons I found this book beneficial to me as a science teacher and would recommend that it be added to a list of "need to read" books for all secondary biology teachers.

More Transitional Fossils than You Can Shake a Bible at!
I was in love with dinosaurs when I was a kid, and I still am. It was my love for dinosaurs and fossils and especially my time spent learning the minutea of the evolutionary history of horses that quickly brought me into direct conflict with the church that I was being inculcated into when I was very young and innocent. Subsequently, I had to learn about evolution in small niblets on the sly. But I wish I had been able to read paleontologist Don Prothero's beautifully written and lavishly illustrated book. More than just a lucid overview of the fossil record, this book magnificently accomplishes its two primary objectives by showing how the "hard data" of the incredibly rich fossil record supports evolution, while also pointing out how pervasive creationist lies, misquotations and various deceptions actually are.

This robust clothbound volume comprises 381 pages printed on heavy, glossy paper. Each of the 16 chapters and its subsections begins with a quotation from an evolutionary scientist, various thinkers or from the Bible, and each chapter ends with a fairly extensive list of books and original papers that the author recommends for further reading. The book also includes a 10-page bibliography and an 8-page user-friendly index.

Prothero's book is divided into two parts. The first section serves as an introduction to the basic concepts that underpin the themes explored in the remainder of the book. The author compares science to various belief systems; discussing what science is (and is not), pointing out the differences between the scientific and religious/mainstream use of the word "theory", identifying scientists' goals, and describing how to detect pseudoscientific claims ("baloney detection"). Prothero also devotes an entire chapter to a fascinating historical discussion of the evolution of religion itself where he presents his own knowledge of the Bible gleaned from his in-depth readings of ancient biblical texts in their original languages. Even though I had a strongly biblical childhood, I still found this chapter to be quite illuminating.

Prothero then introduces his reader to fossils by describing the "lucky accidents" that fossils actually are since fossilization is a very rare event. He also presents a wonderfully persuasive and lavishly illustrated discussion of the superpositional order of rock strata and the associated fossils documented from a number of deep canyons in North America, particularly the Grand Canyon.

In "The Evolution of Evolution", the author reviews how evolutionary thought has changed since the time of the ancient Greeks through Darwin, from the Neo-Darwinian synthesis (which combines population genetics with paleontology, biogeography, ecology and systematics), to punctuated equilibrium and he even ventures out of his field of expertise into a brief discussion of "evo/devo"; evolutionary development. In a particularly well-written chapter, Prothero describes how cladistics has revolutionized our understanding of systematics and taxonomy;

"Some aspects of cladistic theory have proven more difficult for many scientists to accept. For example, a cladogram is simply a branching diagram of relationships between three or more taxa. It does not specify whether one taxon is ancestral to another; it only shows the topology of their relationships as established by shared derived characters. In its simplicity and lack of additional assumptions, it is beautifully testable and falsifiable, so meets Popper's criterion for a valid scientific hypothesis. The nodes are simply branching points supported by shared derived characters, which presumably represent the most recent hypothetical common ancestor of the taxa that branch from that node. But strictly speaking, cladograms never put real taxa at any nodes, but only at the tips of branches." [Prothero, pp. 133-134].

The author shows that evolution is shaped like a bush, with many lineages branching off from one another and where "ancestors" live alongside their evolutionary descendants, instead of the more traditional view of an "evolutionary ladder", where ascending this ladder from "lower" species represents evolution into ever more perfect forms, with humans at the top and the gods above them. This "ladder" view also erroneously implies that evolution has directionality when in fact, it does not.

The second part of this book, entitled "Evolution? The fossils say YES!", is a direct response to creationist Duane Gish's fibdamentalist book, Evolution, the Fossils Say No! This section, which comprises more than half of the total book, provides a chapter-by-chapter analysis of the vast smorgasbord of transitional fossils that are known for nearly every major group of animals (plants are not even mentioned in this book). These chapters are jam-packed with information, each representing at least several lifetimes of dedicated research.

After establishing that amino acids and other complex organic compounds could have arisen de novo under the conditions present on a newly-formed Earth, Prothero then gallops quickly through the evolutionary histories of most major animal groups from microbes and other single-celled organisms, to simple multi-celled organisms, from a suite of invertebrate types to the vertebrates; the fishes, amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs and birds, and mammals. He focuses on specific transition fossils by describing several meticulously documented examples in snakes, whales, horses, giraffes and elephants, just to name a few. He even includes Tiktaalik! Ironically, since humans are not the apex of evolution, Prothero nonetheless includes a separate chapter that specifically focuses on primates, particularly human evolution.

The last chapter of the book is probably the most important: it vigorously argues that creationism is not only dangerous to American education but also to the continued survival of this country. Prothero notes that the rise of creationism in the late 1950s has led to the steadily increasing scientific illiteracy rate among Americans, which threatens this country's economic future because we are trying to compete with better educated countries in a vast global economy dominated by science and technology. He also shows how denying evolution is harmful to our health, as demonstrated by the sadly unsuccessful baboon-to human heart transplant in 1984 by a surgeon who was a devout creationist.

The book features many diagrams and photographs that compliment its discussions. Many of the illustrations were done by my friend, superb paleo-wildlife artist Carl Buell. To give you an idea of the quality of the illustrations in this book, I want to draw your attention to several pictures are especially good examples of Buell's prodigious skills: the first is Color Plate 10 (in the middle of the book), which depicts the Eocene whale, Ambulosetus natans, discovered in Pakistan. This color painting is shown alongside a photograph of the fossils from which the drawing was made. But instead of portraying this animal as a static figure, Buell portrays the nascent whale leaping out of the water to grab another Eocene mammal in its large, toothy mouth (I guess that unfortunate mammal is an early horse). Another absolutely gorgeous example of Buell's artistic abilities is the truly remarkable black and white drawing of how life looked on earth for the first 3 billion years of its history [figure 7.1; p. 160]. I could go on and on praising Buell's artwork.

Since this is such an excellent book, I was surprised to find several mistakes in one paragraph about birds;

"[...] The common European house sparrow is found all over North America today, but it is an invader, brought from Europe in 1852. The initial populations escaped and quickly spread all over North America from the northern boreal forests of Canada down to Costa Rica. We know that the ancestral population was all very similar because they were introduced from a few escaped immigrants. [...] House sparrows from the north are darker in color than their southern cousins, perhaps because dark colors help absorb sunlight and light colors are better at reflecting it in warm climates. Many other changes in wing length, bill shape, and other features have been documented. These differences are so extreme that bird watchers in the south cannot tell that they are looking at the same species as bird watchers in the north." [Prothero, p. 115]

There are two errors in this paragraph. First, English house sparrows didn't escape, they were brought to North America specifically to be released here, and released they were -- twice -- in Central Park. Second, even though English house sparrows potentially represent a wonderful example of "backyard evolution" that is obvious to everyone, this is most certainly not the case. While I am not questioning that there are measurable morphological differences in this species based on their geographical location, these differences are so minor that this species basically looks the same everywhere they are found, especially to the casual observer.

Unfortunately, despite the book's high production quality, I did run across a fair number of typographical and semantic errors -- most of which could have been caught by a spell-checker alone, although a good editor should have done a better job of it. I expect these errors will be addressed in future print runs. However, these flaws should not distract the reader from the overall strength of this well-argued book.

This book is intended for interested readers without a specialized scientific background, students of science, and for those who wish to become better acquainted with the extensive fossil record for animals and how it refutes creationist lies. I highly recommend this book to school and public libraries and to anyone who is interested in gaining a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the fossil record and how it provides a powerful argument in support of evolution.

This review was originally published at http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/

Simply the best general introduction to the fossil record
This book is essential reading for anybody interested in not only evolution, but the evolution/creation debates.It is detailed, informative, hard-hitting, and FUN. Protero's goal is to show that the fossil record provides staggering amounts of evidence for evolution, and to use that evidence to dispel the moronic assertions of creationists that the fossil record shows neither gradual change nor transitional forms.But the tons of evidence he shows turn out to be not at all boring; rather, Prothero is an engaging writer who gives just the right amount of detail, but no more.The illustrations, many by Carl Buell, are also superb. I am a professional evolutionary biologist, and I learned a lot from this book.I recommend it most highly!

Evolution: The Fossils Say `Yes' To It And `No' To Creationism, Including Intelligent Design
"Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters" is the best book I have ever read emphasizing the importance of the fossil record as the indisputable "facts" of biological evolution, documenting the history of life on Planet Earth. Its publication is long overdue, and yet, remains quite timely, when major publishers like Simon and Schuster have mistakenly published sterling examples of mendacious intellectual pornography like Michael Behe's "The Edge of Evolution". Indeed, Prothero's book ought to be viewed as the one that demolishes forever, Behe's inane assertion (which he had expressed in a private e-mail reply to me that I've posted elsewhere here at Amazon.com) that the fossil record is irrelevant, claiming that the "truth" will be found only at the molecular level (More than anything else, that terse comment from Behe merely demonstrates his profound ignorance and understanding of the fossil record. Incidentally, Prothero refers to Behe as an "Intelligent Design creationist".). It also demonstrates the absurdity of creationist claims from the likes of Behe's Discovery Institute colleagues Paul Nelson, Jonathan Wells, and Geoffrey Simmons, among others, that the fossil record does not have "transitional forms". Indeed, as Prothero clearly shows his readers again and again, the history of life on our planet is replete with "transitional forms" documenting the evolutionary transitions from fish to tetrapods, from terrestrial carnivorous dinosaurs to flying birds, from primitive ungulate mammals to whales, and from apes to mankind. He also stresses the relevance of the fossil record to other aspects of evolutionary biology, noting its relevance with respect to molecular - as well as comparative anatomical - data. All of this is told in clear, concise, and persuasive, prose that often reaches the same literary heights attained by Prothero's mentor and friend, the late Stephen Jay Gould; without question this splendid book ought to be regarded as among the finest published last year.

Prothero's book is also a superb guide to the history and - regrettably - ever-present danger posed by Intelligent Design advocates and other creationists. The first three chapters emphasize the profound intellectual differences between valid mainstream science like contemporary evolutionary biology and pseudoscientific religious nonsense like "scientific" creationism in all of its flavors, especially Intelligent Design. Prothero offers a detailed look at the scientific method in the very first chapter, comparing and contrasting it with creationism (He also provides a superb introductory guide too to the writing of the Judeo-Christian Old Testament.). The second chapter is an in-depth exploration of creationism, tracing its roots in early 20th Century American Fundamentalist Protestant Christianity, and, of course, describing the emergence of Intelligent Design and its zealous promotion by the Discovery Institute, the Seattle, Washington-based "conservative" think tank(However, much to my amazement, he does not emphasize sufficiently, the important work done by philosopher of science Barbara Forrest and biologist Paul Gross in their book "Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design" in exposing the Discovery Institute's crypto-Fascist agenda for a future United States. Yet, to his credit, he does acknowledge that agenda by referring to its infamous "Wedge Document" while noting the Discovery Institute's deceitful promotion of Intelligent Design at the expense of valid mainstream science like contemporary evolutionary biology.). Finally, in Chapter Three, Prothero exposes both the intellectual inanity of "Flood Geology" and the popular creationist pastime of "quote mining"; the latter, a practice that's still popular with Discovery Institute Senior Fellows Michael Behe, William Dembski and Jonathan Wells.

The next two chapters comprise an excellent introduction to the history and science of evolutionary biology and the theory and practice of cladistic systematics. In Chapter Four, Prothero discusses the history of evolutionary biology, tracing its intellectual roots from the ancient Greeks to Lamarck, Darwin, and those biologists who became the "architects" of the Modern Synthesis Theory of Evolution (also known as the so-called "Neo-Darwinian Synthesis", since it merged population genetics with paleontology, biogeography, ecology and systematics).He also discusses some of the current controversies in contemporary evolutionary biology, beginning with evolutionary developmentaly biology, better known as "Evo - Devo", and, ending, of course, with punctuated equilibrium, noting how often it has been twisted and bent out of shape by creationists of all stripes, who have excelled only in "quote mining" from the published scientific and popular publications written by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge; the two American invertebrate paleobiologists responsible for "punk eke". In Chapter Five, Prothero offers an especially lucid account of the theory and history of cladistic systematics, emphasizing its importance as a tool for studying both Earth's current biodiversity and its history of life.

In "Part II Evolution? The Fossils Say YES!", Prothero gives us a whirlwind tour of the history of life on Planet Earth, emphasizing major episodes in the history oflife on Planet Earth, beginning with the origin of life, and culminating with the emergence of mankind. In Chapter Six, Prothero offers clear, persuasive evidence for the relative ease in creating life from inert organic compounds, brushing aside creationist arguments to the contrary. He debunks the outdated notion of a "Cambrian Explosion" - which remains popular with creationists, including Intelligent Design advocates - in Chapter 7, observing that the fossil record points to instead, a "Cambrian Slow Fuse", involving the gradual diversification of hard-part skeletonized fauna over the span of eighty million years, from the Late Precambrian through early Ordovician. He discusses the emergence of tetrapods from limbless fish in Chapter 10, the rise of early amniotes (which includes the reptiles, birds and mammals) in Chapter 11, and the evolution of flight in avian dinosaurs in Chapter 12, demonstrating the existence of countless "transitional forms".Further chapters are devoted to the origin of whales (Chapter 14) and humans (Chapter 15), and thus, offer a terse, but still thorough, glimpse, at the history of life on this planet. Prothero's coverage is so superb, that I am surprised by his all too brief references to mass extinctions, especially when their very existence ought to raise ample questions about an Intelligent Designer and his ability to "design" life that is extinction resistant.

In the final chapter of his book (Chapter 16), Prothero makes a truly compelling argument explaining why creationism is a clear and present danger, not only to American education, but indeed, the very survival of the United States too. He quotes from an extended excerpt from the Los Angeles Times, describing creationist Ken Ham's indoctrination of young school children against evolution, conjuring up - at least for me - an image of Adolf Hitler's infamous Nuremberg Nazi Party rallies. He blames the advent of creationism since the late 1950s for fostering scientific illiteracy among Americans, and noting that this threatens our future economic success as we compete with other, better educated, countries like those in Europe and East Asia in a global economy increasingly dominated by science and technology. He also argues persuasively that denial of evolution is harmful to our health and well being, graphically illustrating this point by reminding us of the unsuccessful 1984 baboon to human heart transplant by a creationist Loma Linda University surgeon.Prothero's dire warning is a message I have read before, especially from Niles Eldredge, but here, Prothero's remarks are most compelling, and ones that ought to be heeded by all (Not surprisingly, Prothero compares and contrasts current denial of evolution with that of global warming, and finds obvious parallels with both.).

Great Science
Tells how the fossil record shows all living things evolved over time and how the transition from one fossil to another transformed one species into another. Also explains why the creationists are a threat to science and our well being and do more harm than good. ... Read more

Product Description
Publication of the 20th International Geological Congress, Mexico City, 1956. Articles in English, French, Spanish, German, Russian. ~400 pgs. ... Read more

Book Description

Amazon.com
If you think nature is red in tooth and claw, you've never seen paleoanthropologists. Never has so much fuss been made by so many over so little actual evidence. Unlike most scientific controversies, however, those in paleoanthropology involve seriously emotional issues: nothing less than the origin and nature of humanity.

One of the most fervent controversies in human origins has been over whether human evolution occurred only in Africa (the "Out of Africa" hypothesis), or whether humans evolved on different continents concurrently (the "Multiregional" hypothesis). The bones known as "Java Man" are key for deciding between these theories, and the most important unknowns about them are their dates. Geochronologists Carl Swisher and Garniss Curtis produced the first good dates for fossil humans from Java and set the paleoanthropological community on its collective ear--some of the fossils are much older than anyone thought, others are much younger. In this book they tell their story with the aid of Roger Lewin, a widely respected science journalist and the author of Bones of Contention.

Historians of academic infighting will find Java Man a treasure trove. Rarely has the mask of science been peeled back so completely, to reveal a seething mass of egos, mistakes, lawsuits, and crude hand gestures, boiling around some real, basic questions in human evolution. It's not yet particularly conclusive, but it is certainly not dull. --Mary Ellen CurtinBook Description

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, migrated into eastern Asia about one million years ago. All later humans, these anthropologists thought, developed through a steady modernization process from Homo erectus. But when Garniss Curtis and Carl Swisher of the Berkeley Geochronology Center applied advanced potassium/argon dating techniques to previously studied -- and incorrectly dated -- fossils in Indonesia, their findings shocked the anthropological community and drastically altered our current view of human evolution.

With lucid prose and infectious enthusiasm for the subject, the authors take us on a journey to the Indonesian island of Java, where Curtis and Swisher made two important discoveries: first, that human ancestors left the Cradle of Mankind -- the African continent -- and migrated east almost two million years ago, much earlier than anthropologists had believed, and second, that Homo erectus might have survived until as late as 27,000 years ago, suggesting that Homo erectus actually coexisted with Homo sapiens and was probably not an evolutionary precursor. Their findings not only destroy the straight line of human evolution, but also call into question the inevitability of the evolution of Homo sapiens.

Eventually, politics and a lack of funding find their way into the story, providing a realistic, if unfortunate, look at the travails that accompany scientific discovery. Swisher's and Curtis's findings are often met with skepticism, and their scientific methods are called into question. But conviction and determination lead them to conclusions that not only redefine their field but raise philosophical questions about what it means to be human. ... Read more

Book Description
This is the latest issue in the Special Papers in Palaeontology series, published by The Palaeontological Association. Conforming to the style of the Palaeontology journal, this substantial work investigates the interrelationships and evolution of Basal Theropod Dinosaurs and brings together researchers, geologists and enthusiasts who continue to find material of significance. Two issues are published each year and feature high standard illustrations. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
Gosse argued that the world had indeed been created by God in six days, but had made the earth to appear as though it was already ancient, complete with factitious "evidences" of prehistoric life. Gosse's work was popular with neither Christians nor evolutionists. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

not for the scientifically uneducated
Gosse makes a pre-Darwinian attempt to solve the hen-and-egg riddle.A chick cannot survive without its mommy, he argues, so he opts for the hen.

To account for this, Gosse maintains that the newly created adult animals and plants matured in the mind of God, or in "ideal" or "prochronic" time.The time following the Creation he calls "actual" or "diachronic" time.

Gosse christens his brain-child "prochronism," but it has come to be known as the "Gosse hypothesis" or the "Omphalos hypothesis."

Skeptics admit that this hypothesis is not falsifiable, but point out that it is not verifiable either. Skeptics further suggest that diachronic time could have begun not only in prehistoric times, but at any point in the past. In satire of Gosse's book, these skeptics have coined a hypothesis which they call "last Thursdayism."

You say that your friends and relatives remember sharing an experience with you in years past?I will only say that those witnesses were created last Thursday with memories similar to yours.You say that you have wedding certificates and birth certificates?I will only say that those documents were created last Thursday.

I have found these comments amusing, so I expected the book to be amusing also. I was disappointed.The author goes on a lengthy summary of prehistory which can be followed only a person well-educated in geology. Then he goes on a lengthy description of plant and animal species which only a person well-educated in biology could follow."Ciliated gemmule"?"Monadiform germ"?No comprendo!

If you really want to learn something about science, this book might be for you.If your motives are insincere, like mine, don't bother.

Valued as a primary source
Grosse was apparently the first to publish the idea that God might have created the earth with the appearance of age.For this reason, and its value in understanding the history and philosophy of science, I give thebook four stars.Otherwise the book was a good example of nineteenthcentury scientific writing: too many words, excessive examples andillustrations.There are a few very quotable lines spread throughout thetext, but most of the book is redundant.

Omphalos--A Meditation on the Concept of Creation ex nihilo
Philip Gosse's little book is a gem of quiet, reverent thinking by a talented biologist. He simply (and unusually, for his age) was courageous enough to ask the question, "how would the earth and all its variousinterconnected systems look different than they do now, if the world hadbeen created in an instant by a single creative act?" To explore thisquestion, he asks his contemporary young earth creationists to follow himon an imaginative journey back to the very first day of the earth'screation, and he examines the nature of various living things that he sees.Do the trees have rings? Are there seeds just now sprouting from theground? Do Adam and Eve (and all the mammals) have hair? Teeth? Bones?Belly-buttons?

Every living thing in the world, he begins to prove, ispart of an interconnected temporal system, and has a four-dimensionalnature that goes to its very core. Nature cannot be created ex nihilowithout creating time ex nihilo and nature's whole process "in mediasres", so to speak.

This is where Gosse's meditation has been somisunderstood. His argument is that IF the world has been created out ofnothing by an act of creative power, AND that event happened recentlyashis fellow churchmen were fond of claiming, THEN there could be no physicalevidence of the point at which that creation took place. To put it crudely,the world is by nature a spinning top, and if it has been created at all,it has been created spinning, and there will be no finger-marks on it, noscars of a sudden acceleration.

Gosse's thoughts were directed at thebelievers of his time, and were not intended to convert skeptics. It is sadthat his prejudice against Darwin and the evolutionists (which he sharedwith most people of his day, believing and non-believing) has been heldagainst him.

The next step for a 21st century person of belief is tothink beyond Gosse about the Big Bang. ... Read more

Amazon.com
The title The Great Human Diasporas implies that this book is a history of human migration, but it is much more. It is a readable, accessible summary of the lifework of Luca Cavalli-Sforza, who has done more than anyone else to reveal the genetic makeup of human populations. Originally written in Italian with Cavalli-Sforza's filmmaker son Francesco, it maintains some qualities of an interview: The Great Human Diasporas is full of anecdotes about the Pygmies with whom Cavalli-Sforza works, the text is frequently personal yet not self-serving, and it clearly shows how he helped tie together population genetics, linguistics, and anthropology to offer a new, non-racist view of human diversity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

A Fairly Good Read
Cavalli-Sforza offers a concise account of human genetic history.Using his own research as well as the work of others, he makes some pretty convincing conclusions about man's colonization of the world.

This book's real strength is its explanation and simplification of biological terms and concepts.So many such books bog the reader down in unnecessary technical jargon.Cavalli-Sforza, however, has chosen to illustrate his points with simple examples, graphs, and tables.Simply put: this book will not confuse a layperson.

Cavalli Sforza's interdisciplinary approach is refreshing as well.It is not, as some reviewers suspect, meant to offer an ultra-thorough analysis, but rather it attempts to offer a broad view of the anthropological, lingustic, historical, and genetic evidence for Cavalli-Sforza's ideas.

The book has several weaknesses.At times it proselytizes and wanders off topic, discussing issues such as modern religion and politics.Nevertheless, the book's strengths far outweigh its shortcomings.

Good introduction to anthropology
This is a book covering a wide range of topics relating to anthropology. Cavalli-Sforza tells of his experiences with African Pygmies in the Congo, and relates these experiences to ideas as to what hunter-gatherer life was like. He explains the discovery and history of the theory of evolution, and explains the human tree. The spread and migration of humans since the dawn of their evolution is described in good detail. Molecular biology is easily explained. He also describes theories of agriculture's emergence and significance. Cavalli-Sforza juxtaposes what we know of human migrations from DNA with what we know from linguistic evidence. He also discusses cultural anthropology and the concept of race. It is impressive that Cavalli-Sforza has such a good command of a wide range of subjects.

The book is a good read, especially for the layman. Overall, it is an account of humanity's evolution viewed from a variety of fields.

good account of human history
Great Huaman Diaspporas covers the history of humanity from its origins in Africa and how it spread through different parts of the world. It goes into homo saphiens forefathers and how homo saphiens forefathers evolved into modern man. It also deals with how gene environments influenced genes. It also deals with how language language and race developed.

Overall, a account of how humanity developed it in terms of genes, race and langage.

genes, languages, prehistoric human migrations
The most rewarding part of this popular science book is the middle, fifth to seventh chapters, in which Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Professor of Genetics at Stanford Medical School, draws on scientific research in human population genetics, in which he has been a well respected pioneer, to describe the migration of human populations beginning about 100,000 years ago out of Africa until recent times. Because patterns of genetic and linguistic evolution exhibit high intercorrelations--even though their respective elements and mechanics differ--he also cites linguistic evidence for this account of migratory prehistory.

The most valuable contribution of this book to popular understanding is that population genetics provides possibly the best though not sole scientific basis on which to construct the prehistory of human "races." By this evidence, we learn, for example, about the migration of modern Homo sapiens to Southeast Asia and Australia approximately 55,000 to 60,000 years ago or about the spread of Neolithic farmer-cultivators from the Middle East into Europe beginning about 9,000 to 10,000 years ago. I suspect that readers unfamiliar with modern human evolution will find the genetic tree of the world's populations on page 119 intriguing. The diagram shows, for example, that Northeast Asians are more closely related to Europeans than Northeast Asians are to Southeast Asians.

For as rapidly advancing a science as human population genetics, it should not be surprising that some findings are dated. Recent evidence suggests, for instance, that North Asians descended from both southern China populations that gradually migrated northward as well as Caucasian populations that migrated eastward, so that some genetic mixing all across North Asia took place and is the source of the observed racial connections between North Asians and Caucasians.

In other chapters, Cavalli-Sforza tackles related topics somewhat unevenly. His anecdotes about the African pygmies are light and sympathetic. While his description of the hominid line is accurate for the time of publication, there are more insightful not to mention updated accounts now in print. His discussion of the links between genes and culture is engaging and humane but from the standpoint of science, no better than educated. His rejoinder to the controversial The Bell Curve (1994) is scientifically persuasive.

I very much enjoyed reading this book, the first I purchased at amazon.com.

Good, but no clear objective.
Much interesting material, and some difficult concepts explained clearly for the general lay person.However, the book has no clear objective.It is best read as a supplement to the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Jared Diamond, "Guns, Germs and Steel". ... Read more