Ancient Bones: Unearthing the Astonishing New Story of How We Became Human

by Madelaine Böhme, Jane Billinghurst (Translator), Rüdiger Braun, Florian Breier, David R. Begun (Foreword by)

Overview

"Splendid and important... Scientifically rigorous and written with a clarity and candor that create a gripping tale... [Böhme's] account of the history of Europe's lost apes is imbued with the sweat, grime, and triumph that is the lot of the fieldworker, and carries great authority." —Tim Flannery, The New York Review of Books

In this "fascinating forensic inquiry into human origins" (Kirkus STARRED Review), a renowned paleontologist takes readers behind-the-scenes of one of the most groundbreaking archaeological digs in recent history.

Somewhere west of Munich, paleontologist Madelaine Böhme and her colleagues dig for clues to the origins of humankind. What they discover is beyond anything they ever imagined: the twelve-million-year-old bones of Danuvius guggenmosi make headlines around the world. This ancient ape defies prevailing theories of human history—his skeletal adaptations suggest a new common ancestor between apes and humans, one that dwelled in Europe, not Africa. Might the great apes that traveled from Africa to Europe before Danuvius's time be the key to understanding our own origins?

All this and more is explored in Ancient Bones. Using her expertise as a paleoclimatologist and paleontologist, Böhme pieces together an awe-inspiring picture of great apes that crossed land bridges from Africa to Europe millions of years ago, evolving in response to the challenging conditions they found.

She also takes us behind the scenes of her research, introducing us to former theories of human evolution (complete with helpful maps and diagrams), and walks us through musty museum overflow storage where she finds forgotten fossils with yellowed labels, before taking us along to the momentous dig where she and the team unearthed Danuvius guggenmosi himself—and the incredible reverberations his discovery caused around the world.


Praise for Ancient Bones:

"Readable and thought-provoking. Madelaine Böhme is an iconoclast whose fossil discoveries have challenged long-standing ideas on the origins of the ancestors of apes and humans."
—Steve Brusatte, New York Times-bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

"An inherently fascinating, impressively informative, and exceptionally thought-provoking read."
—Midwest Book Review

"An impressive introduction to the burgeoning recalibration of paleoanthropology."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771647526
Publisher:	Greystone Books
Publication date:	09/08/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

MADELAINE BÖHME is a scientist, professor at the University of Tübingen, and founding director of the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment.

RÜDIGER BRAUN is a journalist who translates cutting-edge science into gripping stories to affect societal change.

FLORIAN BREIER is a journalist, filmmaker, and writer for various television networks.

DAVID R. BEGUN is a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto and co-author of the 2019 study that broke the story of the newly discovered bones to the world.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Introduction 1

Part 1 El Graeco and the Split Between Chimpanzees and Humans

1 Questioning the Origins of Humans: The Detective Work Begins 7

2 The Greek Adventure: The First Fossil Apes From Pikermi 12

3 In the Queen's Garden: Bruno von Freyberg's Discovery 18

4 In Search of Forgotten Treasure: A Journey Into the Catacombs Beneath the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg 25

5 Magnetometers and Microtomography: Ancient Bones in a High-Tech Lab 28

Part 2 The Real Planet of the Apes

6 Disasters and Successes: A Short History of the Search for Our Origins 41

7 African Beginnings: The Golden Age of Ape Evolution 67

8 Progress in Europe: Great Apes in Oak Forests 67

9 Apes in the Allgäu: Was Udo a Missing Link? 78

Part 3 The Cradle of Humanity: Africa or Europe?

10 The Primal Ancestor: Still an Ape or an Early Hominin? 97

11 Fossil Footprints From Crete: Puzzling Prints of an Ancient Biped 107

12 A Skull in the Sand and a "Secret" Thighbone: The Shady Case of Sahelanthropus 118

13 From Early Hominin to Prehistoric Human: The Out-of-Africa Theory Begins to Wobble 131

Part 4 Climate Change as a Driver of Evolution

14 Not Just Counting Bones: Reconstructing the Environment Is Key 151

15 Buried in the Sands of Time: Landscape and Vegetation in El Graeco's Time 162

16 The Great Barrier: A Gigantic Desert Becomes an Insurmountable Obstacle 177

17 A Gray-White Desert and a Salty Sea: The Mediterranean Dries Out 185

Part 5 What Makes Humans Human

18 Free Hands: Lots of Room for Creativity 197

19 Wanderlust: Curiosity About the Unknown 209

20 Hairless Marathoner: The Running Human 225

21 Fire, Intellect, and Small Teeth: How Diet Influenced the Development of the Brain 238

22 Vocal Connections: From Alarm Cries to Culture 248

Part 6 The Lone Survivor

23 A Confusing Complexity: The Problem With the Family Tree 263

24 A Puzzling Phenomenon: Humans From Denisova Cave 272

25 And Then There Was One: The Rational Human 281

Epilogue 289

Acknowledgments 293

Notes 295

Illustration Credits 322

Index 324

Editorial Reviews

Selected by Alexander McCall-Smith as a Book of the Year for The New Statesmen

"Splendid and important... Scientifically rigorous and written with a clarity and candor that create a gripping tale... [Böhme's] account of the history of Europe's lost apes is imbued with the sweat, grime, and triumph that is the lot of the fieldworker, and carries great authority."
—Tim Flannery, The New York Review of Books

"[A]ncient mysteries, serendipitous discoveries, feuding experts, and scientific breakthroughs, all unfolding like a richly detailed detective story..."
—Booklist, starred review

"In this exciting investigation into the long and ancient path of humans, the authors explore the connections among evolution, climate, and environment... An impressive introduction to the burgeoning recalibration of paleoanthropology."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Bohme and her colleagues are wonderful storytellers. They present a complex tale that features a daunting number of moving parts with all the local colour, humour and narrative pace of a well-written mystery novel."
—Vancouver Sun

"An inherently fascinating, impressively informative, and exceptionally thought-provoking read... Ancient Bones is expertly written, organized and presented, making it a critically important and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library."
—Midwestern Book Review

"As outspoken as it is readable."
—NHBS

"Part Sherlock Holmes, part Indiana Jones, Ancient Bones is an entertaining and provocative retelling of the human evolutionary story. Böhme's hypotheses—written with enthusiasm and clarity—will be scientifically scrutinized for decades to come."
—Jeremy DeSilva, author of First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human

"Madelaine Bohme is an iconoclast, and her fossil discoveries have challenged long-standing ideas on the origins of the ancestors of apes and humans. She lays it all out in this readable and thought-provoking book, which goes to show that new fossil clues always have the potential to generate new ideas."
—Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh paleontologist and New York Times-bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

"In pursuit of an intriguing if controversial theory of distant human origins, Madelaine Böhme and her colleagues very readably unearth some fascinating history and evoke all the excitement that is inherent in modern paleoanthropological research."
—Ian Tattersall, co-author of The Accidental Homo sapiens: Genetics, Behavior, and Free Will

"An enthralling journey through time and around the world to untangle the complexities of ape and human evolution. Prof. Boehme skillfully intertwines scientific description with the history of fossil discovery and investigation to explain the evolution and biology of our closest relatives. Sometimes controversial but always exciting and engaging, this book is essential reading for those who want to explore alternative perspectives on our origins."
—Sarah Elton, Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, Durham University

“This book expresses perfectly the excitement of discovering ancestral lineages in our genus. It is a colorful, personal account of research into one of the most basic interests of our species—our origins and our close extinct relatives."
—Dr. Robert DeSalle, principal investigator, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics

From the Publisher

★ 2020-07-23
A fascinating forensic inquiry into the origins of humankind.

In this exciting investigation into the long and ancient path of humans, the authors explore the connections among evolution, climate, and environment. It has long been the understanding that the earliest humans evolved in Africa and spread from there to the other land masses. But recent discoveries, aided by advances in genetics and our ability to more accurately read fossil evidence, have suggested many different scenarios. “Europe 14 million to 7 million years ago must have been like a giant laboratory where great apes made huge evolutionary leaps forward,” they write. “Then, as climate conditions became more challenging in Europe and more favorable once again in Africa, these more highly evolved great apes would have returned to Africa.” The narrative spotlights the authors’ pleasing explanatory style, as they describe the evolutionary process and the mechanisms and geographical spread of changing climatic conditions. The authors energetically highlight major discoveries—e.g., Graecopithecusas “the first potential early hominin” who “was closer to modern humans than to modern great apes” or the 6-million-year-old footprint from a biped discovered on Crete in 2002—and consistently show that there is much more to the story than old bones and radiometric measurements. They re-create entire vanished environments; present a vibrant picture of the hand’s evolution for different functions; propose a scenario for the capture and use of fire; and explore the value of running, language, food, and wanderlust. “Paleoanthropology urgently needs new hypotheses so that the data we now have can be categorized in a way that makes sense,” they write. Throughout this eye-opening book, the authors present a number of them, and any reader interested in the study of early humans and their predecessors will find plenty of material here.

An impressive introduction to the burgeoning recalibration of paleoanthropology.

Kirkus Reviews