Human Paleobiology /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Eckhardt, Robert B.
Imprint:Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Description:1 online resource (xiii, 350 pages)
Language:English
Series:Cambridge studies in biological and evolutionary anthropology
Cambridge studies in biological and evolutionary anthropology.
Subject:
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11200025
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:0511052790
9780511052798
0511173873
9780511173875
9780521451604
0521451604
0511039433
9780511039430
0511303378
9780511303371
9780511542367
0511542364
9780521123853
0521123852
0521451604
Digital file characteristics:data file
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (pages 294-343) and index.
Print version record.
Summary:Human Paleobiology explores the adaptability and variation in past and present human populations under a range of changing environmental conditions. Using a historical approach emphasizing phenotypic features instead of complex taxonomy, it will be a stimulating and challenging read for all those interested in human paleobiology, evolutionary biology and anthropology.
Other form:Print version: Eckhardt, Robert B. Human Paleobiology. Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2000
Review by Choice Review

This is a difficult book to review because the author does not seem to have a clear idea of his audience. Paleobiology is the attempt to reconstruct the lifeways and adaptations of extinct organisms, with less emphasis on their evolutionary interrelationships. Obviously, the reconstruction of how past forms of humans lived would be of great interest to a variety of readers, from undergraduates to researchers to the general public. But Eckhardt (Pennsylvania State Univ.) seems to mix those levels so that his book is less useful than desired. In general, the level is upper-division undergraduate or beginning graduate student, but there are attempts to raise the level to speak to the author's colleagues, while other sections appear to aim at a wider readership. The topics range from fossils to modern human adaptations to genetics, and although integrating these somewhat diverse viewpoints is a useful goal, the author does not fully attain it. Recommended instead for laypersons: Ian Tattersall's books on human evolution, e.g., The Fossil Trail (CH, Nov'95); The Last Neanderthal (1995); or even Extinct Humans (written with Jeffrey H. Schwartz, CH, Nov'00) or Donald C. Johanson and Blake Edgar's From Lucy to Language (1996); and as a text, R. Klein's The Human Career (2nd ed., 1999; 1st ed., CH, May'90). E. Delson CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review