Biology, brains, and behavior : the evolution of human development /

This collection of essays grew out of a 1995 workshop in which 16 anthropologists, psychologists, and other biologists were sequestered to concentrate on understanding the ways in which the human brain and the behavior patterns that it allows evolved from those of ape ancestors. The resulting nine chapters range widely, considering the interactions among evolution, development, cognition, learning, and paleontology. Parker introduces the book with a review of recent advances in physical anthropology, developmental psychology, and "evo-devo," evolutionary developmental biology, one of the hottest areas of modern biology. She also discusses some of the conclusions agreed upon by the participants, e.g., that human cognitive development was characterized by additions to, and acceleration compared to, that of ancestors. This involves aspects of heterochrony, which Brian Shea argues should refer only (following work by S.J. Gould) to the relative time of appearance of features already present in the ancestor of the study organism. The interaction of these several disciplines in a framework constrained by heterochrony, cladistic evolutionary analysis, and a focus on human life history makes this volume novel and productive. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. E. Delson CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College