The strange case of the rickety Cossack : and other cautionary tales from human evolution /

The strange case of the rickety Cossack : and other cautionary tales from human evolution /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Tattersall, Ian, author.
Edition:	First edition.
Imprint:	New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, [2015] ©2015
Description:	xii, 244 pages : black and white illlustrations ; 25 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Paleoanthropology. Human evolution. Fossil hominids. Paleontology. Biological Evolution. Paleopathology. Fossil hominids. Human evolution. Paleoanthropology.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/10307305

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9781137278890 1137278897
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-235) and index.
Summary:	"In his new book human paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall argues that a long tradition of "human exceptionalism" in paleoanthropology has distorted the picture of human evolution. Drawing partly on his own career-- from young scientist in awe of his elders to crotchety elder statesman-- Tattersall offers an idiosyncratic look at the competitive world of paleoanthropology, beginning with Charles Darwin 150 years ago, and continuing through the Leakey dynasty in Africa, and concluding with the latest astonishing findings in the Caucasus. With tact and humor, Tattersall concludes that we are not the perfected products of natural processes, but instead the result of substantial doses of random happenstance"--

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments
Preface
Prologue: Lemurs and the Delights of Fieldwork
1. Humankind's Place in Nature
2. People Get a Fossil Record
3. Neanderthals and Man-Apes
4. The Synthesis and Handy Man
5. Evolutionary Refinements
6. The Gilded Age
7. Meanwhile, Back at the Museum ...
8. Turkana, the Afar, and Dmanisi
9. Molecules and Midgets
10. Neanderthals, DNA, and Creativity
Epilogue: Why Does It Matter How We Evolved?
Notes and Bibliography
Index