The Last Neanderthal: The Rise, Success, and Mysterious Extinction of Our Closest Human Relatives

by Ian Tattersall

Examines the scientific evidence of Neanderthal man, describing the way he lived and exploring how and why he may have become extinct

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Anthropology, History, Evolution, Biology, Prehistory

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Ron Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paleoanthropologists are sort of fun to read because they can’t stand one another, and they really want you to know it. A more bickering bunch with a greater love for the ad hominem argument is hard to find. The physical book is nice. Printed on thick, glossy paper with nice photos, maps, and drawings. The text is interesting but nowhere as good as I had hoped.

Tattersall, in his concern for ‘context,’ uses most of the first 75 pages getting around to Neanderthals as such. Then his interest is primarily in arguing the fine points of bones, stones, and technology for another 75 pages. We’re now up to 150/208 pages in total. Then you get a scant 25 pages on Neanderthal lifestyles, which is mainly spent pooh-poohing any theories that Neanderthals did anything interesting. Then you get 25 pages extolling the wonders of Cro-Magnon culture.

The final chapter, all of 6 pages, called “The Last Neanderthal” at last, basically just says “We wiped them out. I know some people say otherwise, but I think we wiped them out.” Tattersall's book, of course, predates nearly all the research that demonstrates interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans, and he simply denies this is possible or, at best, believes it extremely unlikely (https://is.gd/QjdjVQ). See "We got it wrong — Neanderthals weren’t dumb brutes": https://is.gd/uY8fcO.

[Joe Dang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated information since it was published in 1995 so there is no up to date information about DNA information or new discoveries of other related hominid fossils. Lots of pretty pictures of the most famous hominid and neaderthal fossils discovered to that date. Coffee table like format.

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a pretty coffee table book, with lots of gorgeous close up photos of all that remains of our departed cousins as well as reconstruction work, but the science is already outdated, since it doesn’t included any of the DNA research that has occurred in the past decade since the book was written, so I wouldn’t recommend it as the first or only book to consult to learn about Neanderthals – but definitely a great supplement to get an idea of what they looked like and where they lived.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was, um, OK. Some of the information was out of date (like the author's categorical statement that we never intermarried with the Neaderthals) and there were some VERY long detours into explaining basics, like remedial evolutionary theory, that nobody reading this book is likely to need explained. But I have to say the photos were fabulous.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suffers from that inevitable flaw of most science books - becoming a bit outdated as new research comes out. Still, good to look at and a good introduction, and informative enough if you're keeping up with what's new in general with Neanderthal research.

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read. A bit too technical at times, but very interesting. The illustrations and photographs were great.

[Katriena Knights · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, but I ran out of time.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's very textbook dry. But the pictures are wonderful and the info is plentiful.

[Rhett Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

an easy read. informative about human history.