The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution
Extensively revised and updated, the second edition of The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution offers a colorful history of fossil discoveries and a revealing insider's look at how these finds have been interpreted—and misinterpreted—through time. It covers the dramatic increase in the size and scope of the human fossil record as well as new techniques for analyzing and interpreting that record that have emerged in the thirteen intervening years since the first edition's publication. Author Ian Tattersall, Curator in the Division of Anthropology of the American Museum of Natural History, places the researchers and their discoveries within the context of their social and scientific milieus and reveals the many forces that shape our interpretation of fossil findings.

The Fossil Trail provides an up-to-the-minute overview of paleoanthropological thought and discovery and presents our "family tree" as it is portrayed in the Spitzer Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History.

New to the Second Edition


*Revisions throughout bring this edition thoroughly up to date
*New chapters: Chapters 17 and 18 include a discussion of the state of paleoanthropology as the first decade of the 21st century concludes and thoughts on the future of the field
*A new gallery of maps of major fossil sites, in Western Europe, Central Europe, the Caucasus and Near East, East Asia, Northern Africa, and Southern Africa
*Updated opening timeline includes the stratigraphic ranges of twenty-three hominid species
*In addition to over 90 high quality fossil renderings, new photographs illustrate new findings in the field
1101397050
The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution
Extensively revised and updated, the second edition of The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution offers a colorful history of fossil discoveries and a revealing insider's look at how these finds have been interpreted—and misinterpreted—through time. It covers the dramatic increase in the size and scope of the human fossil record as well as new techniques for analyzing and interpreting that record that have emerged in the thirteen intervening years since the first edition's publication. Author Ian Tattersall, Curator in the Division of Anthropology of the American Museum of Natural History, places the researchers and their discoveries within the context of their social and scientific milieus and reveals the many forces that shape our interpretation of fossil findings.

The Fossil Trail provides an up-to-the-minute overview of paleoanthropological thought and discovery and presents our "family tree" as it is portrayed in the Spitzer Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History.

New to the Second Edition


*Revisions throughout bring this edition thoroughly up to date
*New chapters: Chapters 17 and 18 include a discussion of the state of paleoanthropology as the first decade of the 21st century concludes and thoughts on the future of the field
*A new gallery of maps of major fossil sites, in Western Europe, Central Europe, the Caucasus and Near East, East Asia, Northern Africa, and Southern Africa
*Updated opening timeline includes the stratigraphic ranges of twenty-three hominid species
*In addition to over 90 high quality fossil renderings, new photographs illustrate new findings in the field
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The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution

The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution

by Ian Tattersall
The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution

The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution

by Ian Tattersall

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$108.00 
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Overview

Extensively revised and updated, the second edition of The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution offers a colorful history of fossil discoveries and a revealing insider's look at how these finds have been interpreted—and misinterpreted—through time. It covers the dramatic increase in the size and scope of the human fossil record as well as new techniques for analyzing and interpreting that record that have emerged in the thirteen intervening years since the first edition's publication. Author Ian Tattersall, Curator in the Division of Anthropology of the American Museum of Natural History, places the researchers and their discoveries within the context of their social and scientific milieus and reveals the many forces that shape our interpretation of fossil findings.

The Fossil Trail provides an up-to-the-minute overview of paleoanthropological thought and discovery and presents our "family tree" as it is portrayed in the Spitzer Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History.

New to the Second Edition


*Revisions throughout bring this edition thoroughly up to date
*New chapters: Chapters 17 and 18 include a discussion of the state of paleoanthropology as the first decade of the 21st century concludes and thoughts on the future of the field
*A new gallery of maps of major fossil sites, in Western Europe, Central Europe, the Caucasus and Near East, East Asia, Northern Africa, and Southern Africa
*Updated opening timeline includes the stratigraphic ranges of twenty-three hominid species
*In addition to over 90 high quality fossil renderings, new photographs illustrate new findings in the field

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780195367669
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 11/19/2008
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 352
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)

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.

Table of Contents

Preface, Preface to the First Edition, AbbreviationsSite Map of Western Europe Site Map of Central Europe Site Map of The Caucusus and the Near East Site Map of East Asia Site Map of Northern Africa Site Map of Southern Africa 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 AustralopithecusPeking Man Back to Java Chapter 6: . . . Always Something New International Aceptance 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"Jonny's Child"A Dating Revolution Handy Man Collegial Mutterings 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? A Stem Hominid? Bipeds and Climbers? Why Bipedality? Chapter 12: Theory Intrudes Phyletic Gradualism or Punctuated Equilibria? Reluctant Acceptance Reconstructing Phylogeny Scenarios and Trees Chapter 13: Eurasia and Africa: The Record Grows The Chinese RecordHomo heidelbergensisComplex 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 Caveman 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 Siècle Diet and Isotopes Neanderthal Environmental Preferences The Neanderthal Body DNA from Neanderthals Hybrid Red Herrings High-Tech 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 EthiopiaHomo Revisited Prospects Chapter 19: So, Where Are We? Systematics—The Key to Understanding the Hominids Becoming Human, Epilogue, Bibliography, Index

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The richest and most comprehensive account to date of the thrilling quest to discover our ancestors.

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