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Human Origins: A Short History
Humans are the dominant species on the planet. But how did we get here? Human Origins takes the reader on a fascinating 7-million-year journey from our earliest primordial ape-like roots through to the present day.
For almost a hundred years, scientists have been trying to decipher the secrets of humanity’ s evolution . At first, they relied on rare pieces of ancient skulls and bone fragments. But every year, they make new discoveries, uncover new fossils and develop new techniques to tease apart the story of our evolution.
So far, from skeletons to teeth, humanity has found more than 6,000 hominin individuals . These individuals span several species, all of which tell the tale of human evolution : how our brains changed over time, what we ate, how we lived. Including the latest scientific findings , Human Origins will also look at some of the biggest questions that What makes humans unique? Where did the Neanderthals go? And are humans still evolving?
For almost a hundred years, scientists have been trying to decipher the secrets of humanity’ s evolution . At first, they relied on rare pieces of ancient skulls and bone fragments. But every year, they make new discoveries, uncover new fossils and develop new techniques to tease apart the story of our evolution.
So far, from skeletons to teeth, humanity has found more than 6,000 hominin individuals . These individuals span several species, all of which tell the tale of human evolution : how our brains changed over time, what we ate, how we lived. Including the latest scientific findings , Human Origins will also look at some of the biggest questions that What makes humans unique? Where did the Neanderthals go? And are humans still evolving?
224 pages, Hardcover
Published July 16, 2024
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92 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 21, 2024
A book of many many questions but does it answer all of them? Of course it doesn’t and it does a fantastic job of explaining why. Paleoanthropology is one of those jobs where you are working with the smallest amount of evidence and need to be one hell of a detective to put the pieces together, they are looking at events going back millions of years and coming up with theories from a single piece of bone fragment. And like humans these theories are constantly evolving as more evidence is found.
I think the point of this book is to keep things simple, to try and get somebody with very little knowledge interested in the history of how they came to be how they are today…for me the book works. My knowledge starts with that famous image on T-shirts of a monkey starting to walk upright and ending with something funny…and ends with that we didn’t come from Neanderthals.
I have to admit I was surprised to learn there so many more steps from apes to human sapiens, it makes perfect sense that we slowly evolved but I am so easily influenced by t-shirts that I had never thought about it before…and it turns out we do have Neanderthal DNA….so I knew nothing.
Using plenty of diagrams, brief chapters and boxes with interesting side notes I was easily drawn in, it is still a tricky subject to learn as there is so much science involved, especially in dating when the bone fragment was from but Wild does a good job of trying to share as much information as possible without overwhelming the reader. I think the thing I struggled with most was keeping track of all the scientific names, there were a lot to remember and I just couldn’t keep track of who came when. There was a timeline at the back of the book and that just confused matters more, it was some kind of scatter diagram, I think the book would benefit from a simpler diagram shared at the beginning.
The book ends with us today and asks if we are still evolving, I found this to be the most interesting part, possibly because it was the most identifiable to me, it points out that due to us being able to fix things like eyesight and heart issues these things remain in our gene pool and I learnt why some people are lactose intolerant. Unfortunately the book doesn’t ask the one question I thought of at the beginning, what is the point in a chin?
A very well put together book, full of lots to learn, the sort of book that demands you take notes but a great introduction into this subject. I’m off now to find a much wider t-shirt showing all our stages of evolution.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2024...
I think the point of this book is to keep things simple, to try and get somebody with very little knowledge interested in the history of how they came to be how they are today…for me the book works. My knowledge starts with that famous image on T-shirts of a monkey starting to walk upright and ending with something funny…and ends with that we didn’t come from Neanderthals.
I have to admit I was surprised to learn there so many more steps from apes to human sapiens, it makes perfect sense that we slowly evolved but I am so easily influenced by t-shirts that I had never thought about it before…and it turns out we do have Neanderthal DNA….so I knew nothing.
Using plenty of diagrams, brief chapters and boxes with interesting side notes I was easily drawn in, it is still a tricky subject to learn as there is so much science involved, especially in dating when the bone fragment was from but Wild does a good job of trying to share as much information as possible without overwhelming the reader. I think the thing I struggled with most was keeping track of all the scientific names, there were a lot to remember and I just couldn’t keep track of who came when. There was a timeline at the back of the book and that just confused matters more, it was some kind of scatter diagram, I think the book would benefit from a simpler diagram shared at the beginning.
The book ends with us today and asks if we are still evolving, I found this to be the most interesting part, possibly because it was the most identifiable to me, it points out that due to us being able to fix things like eyesight and heart issues these things remain in our gene pool and I learnt why some people are lactose intolerant. Unfortunately the book doesn’t ask the one question I thought of at the beginning, what is the point in a chin?
A very well put together book, full of lots to learn, the sort of book that demands you take notes but a great introduction into this subject. I’m off now to find a much wider t-shirt showing all our stages of evolution.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2024...
October 26, 2024
An excellent, readable and up-to-date overview of the state of play regarding the science that is uncovering humanity's origins. This is a topic that interests me and that I am fairly well versed in and Wild has helped to bring me up to speed ...
October 9, 2023
At the beginning of this book, the author states, "The aim of this book is to break the complex human story into bite-sized chunks, to highlight the broad trends and the major disagreements--and there are many disagreements...I have also tried to highlight how much our understanding of human origins has changed--and continues to change--and how, in some ways, palaeoanthropology showcases some of the best features of scientific inquiry..." (p6)
Does she succeed at the task she has set for herself? Indeed she does! She skillfully weaves the many threads of the story of human origins into a very readable, informative, fascinating narrative. Along the way, some threads get dropped and new ones picked up as more evidence becomes available. The search for the definitive story of how we--Homo sapiens sapiens--became the last homo species left will probably never be completely understood. The clues are random and necessarily fragmentary. We only have what turns up in the archaeological record. Then there is the interpretation of what is found, which often leads to disagreement between scientists. There is broad agreement that anatomically modern humans have been around for about 300,000 years, but how we got to that point and what happened to the other human species is still being explored. One 'fun fact' in the book was that Homo sapiens is the only hominin species (the lineage of species that diverged from chimpanzees 6 to 7 million years ago and resulted in us) to have a chin, as far as scientists know, and they don't know why.
This book is a great overview of the current state of thinking about human origins. It explains things without getting deep into jargon--general readers will find the book fascinating, highly readable, and informative. My one quibble was the explanatory boxes that were placed in the middle of the text. They provided important information, but the placement did interrupt the narrative flow for me, so I ended up just reading each chapter, then going back to read the text within the boxes. That's a minor issue, though, and about organization, not the excellent book itself. I highly recommend this book.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a digital review copy.
Does she succeed at the task she has set for herself? Indeed she does! She skillfully weaves the many threads of the story of human origins into a very readable, informative, fascinating narrative. Along the way, some threads get dropped and new ones picked up as more evidence becomes available. The search for the definitive story of how we--Homo sapiens sapiens--became the last homo species left will probably never be completely understood. The clues are random and necessarily fragmentary. We only have what turns up in the archaeological record. Then there is the interpretation of what is found, which often leads to disagreement between scientists. There is broad agreement that anatomically modern humans have been around for about 300,000 years, but how we got to that point and what happened to the other human species is still being explored. One 'fun fact' in the book was that Homo sapiens is the only hominin species (the lineage of species that diverged from chimpanzees 6 to 7 million years ago and resulted in us) to have a chin, as far as scientists know, and they don't know why.
This book is a great overview of the current state of thinking about human origins. It explains things without getting deep into jargon--general readers will find the book fascinating, highly readable, and informative. My one quibble was the explanatory boxes that were placed in the middle of the text. They provided important information, but the placement did interrupt the narrative flow for me, so I ended up just reading each chapter, then going back to read the text within the boxes. That's a minor issue, though, and about organization, not the excellent book itself. I highly recommend this book.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a digital review copy.
October 12, 2023
It's inevitable that us humans have a distinct interest in where we come from as a species, and in this book Sarah Wild takes us through the latest state of knowledge on the origin of our species and of the various extinct species that broadly fall within the 'hominin' descriptor.
There's plenty of compact information here, with occasional boxes filling in basics, such as how fossils form and what a hominin is. Some of the facts are eminently quotable - my favourite was that of all the species mentioned, only Homo sapiens has a chin (not sure what this says about chinless wonders). I particularly liked the chapters on 'the first sapiens' - what we know about the earliest members of our species - and on 'the big questions', notably what happened to all the other related-ish species and the ways in which we are still evolving.
Unfortunately, though, the book does suffer from Rutherford stamp collecting syndrome. The great physicist commented (roughly) that all science is either physics or stamp collecting - suggesting that other scientific disciplines focus too much on collecting and collating data, where physics is more about deducing laws and explanation of phenomena (hence far more interesting). Wild gives us a plethora of data and species, with many different hominins named, and their distinguishing features reeled off. What's missing is a sense of storytelling and narrative - it's just too fact-heavy.
Just to give one example: in a section labelled 'Homo mysteries', Wild introduced the famous 'hobbit' of the Indonesian island of Flores. We hear about where the remains were found, the excavations, the species' strange mix of characteristics and the debate over whether the remains were of a new species or of individuals with birth defects. But nowhere is there a mention of the best bit of the story (appearing in Henry Gee's The Accidental Species), that the discoverers originally suggested naming the species Homo florianus, but hastily renamed it Homo floresiensis when they discovered their original name means a flowery part of the anatomy. It might be trivial, but a story like this adds human interest. Similarly we hear very little other about the discoverers than their names - ironically, it would have been great to give more human context.
I was also uncomfortable with Wild's use of the word 'ancestor'. As far as I'm concerned, an ancestor is in a species' direct lineage. But at one point we are told 'For many years [Ardipithecus ramidus] was the oldest human ancestor we knew of.' Yet, as we are correctly told some pages later, 'We do not know how the human lineage evolved from early hominins' - all we have is fragments of different earlier hominins, many of which will not be our ancestors, and we have no way of being clear when dealing with specimens too old for genetic identifiers.
The book was absolutely fine as a textbook light, and I was happy to endorse it as such. If you need to get information about the context of human evolution, it will give a good collection of facts (if we overlook the ancestor thing) - but it hasn't got the readability of good popular science.
There's plenty of compact information here, with occasional boxes filling in basics, such as how fossils form and what a hominin is. Some of the facts are eminently quotable - my favourite was that of all the species mentioned, only Homo sapiens has a chin (not sure what this says about chinless wonders). I particularly liked the chapters on 'the first sapiens' - what we know about the earliest members of our species - and on 'the big questions', notably what happened to all the other related-ish species and the ways in which we are still evolving.
Unfortunately, though, the book does suffer from Rutherford stamp collecting syndrome. The great physicist commented (roughly) that all science is either physics or stamp collecting - suggesting that other scientific disciplines focus too much on collecting and collating data, where physics is more about deducing laws and explanation of phenomena (hence far more interesting). Wild gives us a plethora of data and species, with many different hominins named, and their distinguishing features reeled off. What's missing is a sense of storytelling and narrative - it's just too fact-heavy.
Just to give one example: in a section labelled 'Homo mysteries', Wild introduced the famous 'hobbit' of the Indonesian island of Flores. We hear about where the remains were found, the excavations, the species' strange mix of characteristics and the debate over whether the remains were of a new species or of individuals with birth defects. But nowhere is there a mention of the best bit of the story (appearing in Henry Gee's The Accidental Species), that the discoverers originally suggested naming the species Homo florianus, but hastily renamed it Homo floresiensis when they discovered their original name means a flowery part of the anatomy. It might be trivial, but a story like this adds human interest. Similarly we hear very little other about the discoverers than their names - ironically, it would have been great to give more human context.
I was also uncomfortable with Wild's use of the word 'ancestor'. As far as I'm concerned, an ancestor is in a species' direct lineage. But at one point we are told 'For many years [Ardipithecus ramidus] was the oldest human ancestor we knew of.' Yet, as we are correctly told some pages later, 'We do not know how the human lineage evolved from early hominins' - all we have is fragments of different earlier hominins, many of which will not be our ancestors, and we have no way of being clear when dealing with specimens too old for genetic identifiers.
The book was absolutely fine as a textbook light, and I was happy to endorse it as such. If you need to get information about the context of human evolution, it will give a good collection of facts (if we overlook the ancestor thing) - but it hasn't got the readability of good popular science.
October 9, 2023
Sarah Wild has created a fascinating in-depth investigation into our origins as humans!!
Having read multiple books on human evolution with long, monotonous words that simply don't captivate non-professionals, I'm glad to say this book isn't one of them! The language used is beginner friendly, easily understandable and has explanations for the more ambiguous vocabulary that none of us has ever seen before.
This short history is organised chronologically into bite sized chunks and accompanied by simple yet detailed diagrams. I particularly loved the information/narrative boxes that were dispersed between the pages. They added extra facts and aided understanding, as well as breaking up large amounts of text during some of the heavier topics.
Wild has successfully 'painted a history of the world using bones'.
Thank you to the publisher and the author for my digital review copy. :)
Having read multiple books on human evolution with long, monotonous words that simply don't captivate non-professionals, I'm glad to say this book isn't one of them! The language used is beginner friendly, easily understandable and has explanations for the more ambiguous vocabulary that none of us has ever seen before.
This short history is organised chronologically into bite sized chunks and accompanied by simple yet detailed diagrams. I particularly loved the information/narrative boxes that were dispersed between the pages. They added extra facts and aided understanding, as well as breaking up large amounts of text during some of the heavier topics.
Wild has successfully 'painted a history of the world using bones'.
Thank you to the publisher and the author for my digital review copy. :)
November 16, 2023
A well pitched and informative overview of the current knowledge around the beginnings of our own species and those that came before or coexisted with us. The level of detail is just right for me and the terminology is well explained without being patronising, which is a tough gig to achieve. The information is divided up into manageable chunks and kept my interest well. I would, perhaps, have appreciated some accompanying visuals for illustrative purposes but otherwise cannot fault the writing style or content. I particularly enjoyed the projections and predictions for the future including the topic of whether and how we as a species are continuing to adapt and evolve. Truly thought provoking and fascinating stuff.
April 10, 2025
This was a very good up-to-date introduction to Human Evolution. I rally enjoyed reading it and it had very good nuggets of information that would even surprise those more acquainted with evolution such as the susceptibility to Covid as a byproduct of having Neanderthal DNA in our genome. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was the lack of real picture illustrations of the fossils discussed. I had to stop and search them up on google images a lot of the time.
December 27, 2024
This is a reasonable summary of the main archeological finds and classifications of archaic humans. The descriptions seem quite generalised. There is very little discussion of migration. At times it reads like a list of information rather than a coherent synthesis.
July 20, 2025
An amazing amount of primary facts with very little coherent synthesis.
March 14, 2025
This book was easy to read. Overall it was an engaging overview of the current understanding of human evolution. I found the later chapters particularly interesting when she starts getting into potential cultural characteristics of various sapiens.
I think this book would benefit from pictures. Maybe I’m just dumb, but pictures are always a helpful treat. It would be cool to see examples of the fossil they are talking about. It does have some good diagrams.
I watch a whole lotta YouTube video about prehistory, so I was familiar with a lot of these discoveries. Whereas the videos tend to focus on new studies or more niche ideas; this book did a good job of cementing those ideas into a concise human story. Shoutout learning.
I think this book would benefit from pictures. Maybe I’m just dumb, but pictures are always a helpful treat. It would be cool to see examples of the fossil they are talking about. It does have some good diagrams.
I watch a whole lotta YouTube video about prehistory, so I was familiar with a lot of these discoveries. Whereas the videos tend to focus on new studies or more niche ideas; this book did a good job of cementing those ideas into a concise human story. Shoutout learning.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews