This is an introductory textbook for the study of human evolution, and covers all major topics of human origins taught under paleoanthropology, anthropology, archaeology, and evolutionary biology courses. This book differs from the existing selection of textbooks in the following ways:
It incorporates the most recent fossil discoveries and interpretations.
It balances the discussion between descriptions of fossils and interpretations of behavior of hominins in different time periods.
It includes current findings of genomics into understanding the more recent stages of human evolution. This important subdiscipline is badly underserved by current texts.
It consistently addresses the relationship of evidence to our current hypotheses and interpretations.
The book has an engaging and lucid style suitable for those entering the field. Students will find ample case studies, illustrations and examples helpful in understanding difficult concepts. Tables, timelines, and maps in every chapter include data summaries and key points. The book highlights peripheral points and background concepts in side boxes for easy reference and lists key ideas at the end of each chapter.
This up-to-date and easy to read text is suitable for both classroom study and self-learning.
Part I Introduction.- 1. The Reflection in the Mirror.- 2. Background:
Evolutionary Classification and Fossil Dating.- 3. A Primate Heritage.- Part
II The First Hominins.- 4. Miocene Hominoids.- 5. The Early Hominins:
Australopiths.- 6. The Ecological Context of Early Hominin Evolution.-
7. Understanding Australopiths.- 8. The Evolution of Bipedality.- Part III
The First Humans.- 9. The Earliest Humans in Africa.- 10. The First
Technology.- 11. Diet of Early Homo.- 12. Evolution of the Brain.-
13. Leaving Africa.- Part IV The Middle Pleistocene.- 14. The Erectines of
Asia.- 15. Erectines of the West.- 16. Behavior in the Middle Pleistocene.-
Part V The Emergence of Modern People.-
17. Late Pleistocene Homo and the
Emergence of Modern Humans.- 18. From the Middle Paleolithic to the Modern
Mind.- 19. Modern Humans Disperse From Africa.- 20. Distributing Modern
Peoples.- 21. Life History and Reproduction.- 22. Evolution Today and
Tomorrow.
John H. Langdon is Professor Emeritus of Biology and Anthropology at the University of Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Professor Langdon has written four books, Getting it Right: The Science of human Evolution (Springer), The Human Strategy: An Evolutionary Perspective on Human Anatomy (Oxford University Press); Human Dissection for the Allied Health Sciences (Little, Brown), and Functional Morphology of the Miocene Hominoid Foot (S. Karger), and co-edited a fourth, The Natural History of Paradigms (University of Indianapolis Press). His research interests are in the field of historical demography; human biology; human evolution; functional and evolutionary morphology; history and development of paleoanthropology; evolution of human behavior; history and process of the natural sciences. Professor Langdon has a BA in anthropology from Harvard University, and MPhil and PhD in anthropology from YaleUniversity.
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