Understanding Human Evolution

Understanding Life

by Ian Tattersall

Human life, and how we came to be, is one of the greatest scientific and philosophical questions of our time. This compact and accessible book presents a modern view of human evolution. Written by a leading authority, it lucidly and engagingly explains not only the evolutionary process, but the technologies currently used to unravel the evolutionary past and emergence of Homo sapiens. By separating the history of palaeoanthropology from current interpretation of the human fossil record, it lays numerous misconceptions to rest, and demonstrates that human evolution has been far from the linear struggle from primitiveness to perfection that we've been led to believe. It also presents a coherent scenario for how Homo sapiens contrived to cross a formidable cognitive barrier to become an extraordinary and unprecedented thinking creature. Elegantly illustrated, Understanding Human Evolution is for anyone interested in the complex and tangled story of how we came to be.

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

208 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 28, 2022

Reviews

[Sanjay Prabhakar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clearly written. Argues that attribution of fossils to species has often been unhelpful - the dichotomy between Homo and Australopithicus and the identification of "early African Homo erectus" (i.e. Homo ergaster) being prime examples; and that while the capacity for symbolism in Homo sapiens must have arisen with the physiological changes involved in speciation by 200kyr (primarily through mutations of regulatory genes), symbolism itself only appeared with the invention of language proper after 100kyr. The discussion was largely based on physiology, and it would have been nice to see more said about hominin sociality.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook version.

The last few chapters are really interesting, the first few, quite technical and list heavy, are not at all well served by the audiobook format. That said, I definitely came away with a more nuanced understanding of paleoanthropology, and am glad to have done so.

The narrator for this version is something else. The accent, pace, and diction are pure moustache twirling Victorian villain. The disdain for hominins with lesser cranial capacity and the clear relish with which he treats the word 'paleoanthropological' are alone worth the price of admission.

If this is a topic you fund interesting, worth the time.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

An brief, but excellent, overview of the history of paleoanthropology and what the current consensus on Human Evolution is. (I did need to brush up on a couple of topics most notably taxonomy to fully comprehend the information-- thank you YouTube.) Loved the last part which dispels most of pervasive misconceptions surrounding human evolution. Only negative, near the end there is a mislabeled illustration (difference between Neanderthal and modern human was switched), which made me wonder if the previous inserts were also mislabeled, but I wouldn't know.

[Marla · Rating 3 out of 5]

- very informative, it did take me a while to read due to its scientific writing style
- I enjoyed the later chapters the most, they were about the life of the neanderthals and the cognitive revolution of the Homo sapiens

[Kevin Hendricks · Rating 3 out of 5]

A clear, concise and current description of human evolution.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introductory read if you want to understand the what and "how do we know," of human evolution. Clear prose. Not too technical, but a great bibliography at the end.

[Bob Small · Rating 4 out of 5]

He certainly (perhaps justifiably) has a dig at how insular and less than rigourous, the community of scientists studying human evolution have been.

[Max Mendez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise and well-written. Great overview of the state of the art on the subject.

[Jacob Boettcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deep, well researched and informative. Still, wished for an even more accessible intro into human evolution. (But that is more of a comment about my hook selection than the text itself!)

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

great little update book

[Jayson Campeau · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too academic for me. There are some great studies and findings and research but not written in an easy enough style of form to be accessible to lay people.