The Patchwork Human: Two Billion Years of Evolution

Life began about four billion years ago on our planet. Like an old patchwork quilt, evolution stitched the human being together from parts of ancient species now long extinct. Like any species, humans have hundreds or even thousands of traits that have been passed down through time. The evolutionary age of our different traits can be told from how widely distributed they are among today's living creatures.

The book aims to explain some human traits and how we--as social, sexual, language-...