Book Description

The Olduvai Bed I archaeological sites, dating back to almost 2 million years, have been at the epicenter of the debate on how early humans behaved. This book presents a new analytical approach which, after having been applied to these sites, has produced unexpected results: the association of stone tools and faunal remains at most Olduvai Bed I sites is accidental and not related to hominid behavior. Only at one site, FLK Zinj, is this association intentional. Through careful taphonomic analysis of this site, coupled with detailed experimental work, it is possible to rule out the hypothesis that hominids were passive scavengers. Hominids were targeting meat in the exploitation of animals, which they probably obtained through some degree of predation, and their behavior seems to have been more advanced than previously thought.

Book Description

This book acknowledges and celebrates the contributions of Dr. Frederick S. Szalay to the field of Mammalian Evolutionary Morphology. Professor Szalay has published about 200 articles, six monographs, and six books on this subject. He is a strong advocate for biologically and evolutionarily meaningful character analysis, which, in his view, can be accomplished only through an integrated strategy of functional, adaptational, and historical analysis. The articles in this book employ this strategy to address a wide range of problems in mammalian and primate evolution.

Book Description

This dynamic chronicle of the race to find the “missing links” between humans and apes transports readers into the highly competitive world of fossil hunting and into the lives of the ambitious scientists intent on pinpointing the dawn of humankind.
 
The quest to find where and when the earliest human ancestors first appeared is one of the most exciting and challenging of all scientific pursuits. The First Human is the story of four international teams obsessed with solving the mystery of human evolution and of the intense rivalries that propel them.
 
An award-winning science writer, Ann Gibbons introduces the various maverick fossil hunters and describes their most significant discoveries in Africa. There is Tim White, the irreverent and brilliant Californian whose team discovered the partial skeleton of a primate that lived more than 4.4 million years ago in Ethiopia. If White can prove that it was hominid—an ancestor of humans and not of chimpanzees or other great apes—he can lay claim to discovering the oldest known member of the human family. As White painstakingly prepares the bones, the French paleontologist Michel Brunet comes forth with another, even more startling find. Well known for his work in the most remote and hostile locations, Brunet and his team uncover a stunning skull in Chad that could set the date of the beginnings of humankind to almost seven million years ago. Two other groups—one led by the zoologist Meave Leakey, the other by the British geologist Martin Pickford and his partner, Brigitte Senut, a French paleontologist—enter the race with landmark discoveries of other fossils vying for the status of the first human ancestor.
 
Through scrupulous research and vivid first-person reporting, The First Human takes readers behind the scenes to reveal the intense challenges of fossil hunting on a grand competitive scale.

Customer Reviews (11)

Ann Gibbons, the First Human
Very informative summary of more recent discoveries and their significance w.r.t. older finds. The competition among field workers is not surprising although at times the story becomes a bit "gossipy"

A Human who can write!
The First Human by Ann Gibbons is a good book for any armchair paleoanthropologist. She reviews concisely the history of the search for human origins and reveals in great detail the recent discoveries made over the last few decades.
The book is well written and analytical with in depth reporting from actual interviews with the principals who have made the most recent finds.
I highly recommend this book.

Fascinating read!
As a student of paleoanthropology, I was slightly wary of reading another popular account of fossil hunting in Africa. After finishing "The First Human," however, I can say with certainty that not only did Ann Gibbons do her homework, but that she was able to deftly weave together both the science and the politics in one of the most fascinating narratives I've read in some time. One really begins to understand both the hardship of paleoanthropological fieldwork and the thrill of discovery. But that of course is only the beginning. Her descriptions of the ensuing scientific cross-fire, often tainted by personal and political conflict, is clear and engaging. All in all, a well-written and up-to-date chronicle of the science of human origins.

Makes You Want to Watch for Anything Else She Writes
As best I can tell this is Ann Gibbons first book. And it makes you want to keep an eye out for anything else she publishes.

Nominally this book is a report on the search for our first ancestors. But in reality it is a book on the people doing the searching. Big time science, be it physics or medicine or, as in this case, paleontologists the struggle is only partially one of finding the answer to the problem. The real problems are in getting funded, then when you discover something, going to war against your fellow scientists whole will be attacking your results because if you get more funding, more support, more prizes they will suffer, or at least they think they will.

Ms Gibbons primarily follows four teams who are looking for evidence about our earliest ancestors. Our ancestors didn't conveniently die in nice places that you'd want to visit. Having to go where the fossils are. And in the case of human ancestors, that means Africa. And not the nicest places in Africa but dry hot deserts in Ethiopia, Chad and places like that.

While I suspect that the discoveries described in this book will be replaced by the next finding somewhere else, the interplay of the people will remain constant.

Next, Ms. Gibbons, how about looning into astronomy/cosmology.

The Drama of Paleoanthropology
Few are neutral on the subject of human origins.Many find the evolution of the human species a subject that demeans the status of man as a little lower than the angels. Those that accept evolution find themselves on one side or another of the various controversies caused by the new discoveries that seem to appear on a very regular basis.It is this latter ferment that Ann Gibbons describes in her book "The First Human". She has produced an excellent account of the often contentious search for human origins.

It is certainly unfortunate that so many of the people involved in the discovery of human fossils have been egotistical and often vicious in their treatment of anyone they deemed as competitors. The political maneuvering that denied some researchers permits and the often lurid public attacks on rival researchers left paleoanthropolgy with a stained reputation and very possibly did some damage to the research itself.One is reminded of the famous Marsh-Cope feud over dinosaur and other fossil bones.Only medical research may have had as cut-throat a history as paleontology.

Still, either despite the unpleasant fights or perhaps because of them, many fossils have been discovered and our understanding of human evolution has become more solid with time.In fact there are so many fossils (as well as DNA evidence) connecting humans and our closest relatives that human evolution from the same line as apes is more established than ever. An African origin for all of the various "races" is also nearly certain, despite the various multi-origin or Asian origin hypotheses.We are thus all Africans and we are all also very closely related, despite superficial differences, such as skin color or head shape.

If you want a very readable history of the discovery of man's ancestors up to nearly the present, this is a good book to read.Of course it is undoubtedly already out of date in this fast moving field!

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Book Description

Recent years have witnessed exciting and important scientific breakthroughs in the study of Neanderthals and their place in human evolution which have transformed our appreciation of this groups paleobiology and evolution. This volume presents cutting-edge research by leading scientists re-examining the major debates in Neanderthal research with the use of innovative state-of-the art methods and exciting new theoretical approaches.