Fossil Trail by Tattersall

Fossil Trail by Tattersall

One of the most remarkable fossil finds in history occurred in Laetoli, Tanzania, in 1974, when anthropologist Andrew Hill (diving to the ground to avoid a lump of elephant dung thrown by a colleague) came face to face with a set of ancient footprints captured in stone-the earliest recorded steps of out far-off human ancestors, some three million years old. Today we can see a recreation of the making of the Laetoli footprints at the American Museum of Natural History, in a stunning diorama which depicts two of our human forebears walking side by side through a snowy landscape of volcanic ash. But how do we know what these three-million-year-old relatives looked like? How have we reconstructed the eons-long journey from our first ancient steps to where we stand today? In short, how do we know what we think we know about human evolution. In The Fossil Trail, Ian Tattersall, the head of the Anthropology Department at the American Museum of Natural History, takes us on a sweeping tour of the study of human evolution, offering a colourful history of fossil discoveries and a revealing insider's look at how these finds have been interpreted -and misinterpreted-through time. All the major figures and discoveries are here. We meet Lamark and Cuvier and Darwin (we learn that Darwin's theory of evolution, though a bombshell, was very congenial to a Victorian ethos of progress), right up to modern theorists such as Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould. Tattersall describes Dubois's work in Java, the may discoveries in South Africa by pioneers such as Raymond Dart and Robert Broom, Louis and Mary Leakey's work at Olduvai Gorge, Don Johanson's famous discovery of "Lucy" (a 3.4 million-year-old femail hominid, some 40 per cent complete), and the more recent discovery of the "Turkana boy", even more complete than "Lucy" and remarkably similar to modern human skeletons. He discusses the may techniques available to analyse finds, from Flourine analysis (developed in the 1950s, it exposed Piltdown as a hoax) and a radiocarbon dating to such modern techniques as electron spin resonance and the analysis of human mitochondrial DNA. He gives us a succinct picture of what we presently think our family tree looks like, with at least three general and perhaps a dozen species through time (though he warns that this greatly underestimates the actual diversity of hominids over the past two million or so years). And he paints a vivid, insider's portrait of paleontology, the dogged work in the broiling sun, searching for a tooth or a fractured corner of bone amid stone litter and shadows, with no guarantee of ever finding anything. And perhaps most important, Tattersall looks at all these great researchers and discoveries with the context of their social and scientific milieu, to reveal the insidious ways that the received to reveal the insidious ways that the received wisdom can shape how we interpret fossil findings, that what we expect to find colours our understanding of what we do find.

"The overall effect is tightly controlled, measured, fair, thoughtful, and demands a good deal of respect"--The Times Higher Education Supplement "This refreshingly opinionated book will have a lasting influence on the next generation of paleoanthropologists."--Nature "Encapsulates the study of human evolution."--The Washington Post "Tattersall provides the richest and most comprehensive account to date of the thrilling quest to discover our ancestors. But more importantly, the book succeeds brilliantly in enlightening us about the varied scientific and intellectual frameworks in which fossil evidence for human evolution has been interpreted. This superb book is a must for everyone interested in understanding the human story."--Don Johanson, Institute of Human Origins "Lucidly crafted within the framework of modern evolutionary biology this volume affords a much-needed and long-awaited critical analysis of the now greatly enhanced documentation of the human fossil record and of major transformations in perspectives and methodologies in respect to its analysis and evaluation. The appearance of evolutionary novelties, the recognition of past species' diversities, of major extinction events, of persistent lineages, and their poles of adaption, of modern morphological differentiation, and of behavioral capabilities are singularly and effectively elucidated. The Fossil Trail is an unsurpassed, tour-de-force exposition of the growth of knowledge of the origins and evolutionary past of human kind. It constitutes an exceptional landmark in the literature of paleoanthropology."--F. Clark Howell, Laboratory for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of California, Berkeley "How we know is easily as important as what we think we know--and often even more interesting. The Fossil Trail is an incisive, fascinating story of discovery and analysis of the fossil record of human evolution. Tattersall tells us why, in the ongoing quest to understand our origins, it is definitely not true that every new fossil renders prior schemes obsolete: In the perennial collision between ideas and fossils, real cumulative progress is possible--and indeed has been made. Ian Tattersall tells this, the greatest story ever told, beautifully. The Fossil Trail will prove to be a lasting contribution to our understanding of human origins--and how we have gone about figuring out our history."--Niles Eldredge, Curator, Department of Invertebrates, American Museum of Natural History "A vigorous historical narrative of paleontologists' attempts to reconstruct human origins from the fossil record."--Publishers Weekly "A refreshing appraisal.... Wise words from a highly qualified observer of humanity past and present."--Kirkus "An outstanding achievement....The task of organizing such complex material into a narrative account would have defeated most writers, but Tattersall has mastered it with remarkable skill. The result is a smoothly flowing and wonderfully readable book that grips the attention without oversimplifying the arguments....An altogether excellent book."--The New Scientist "...informative and highly readable....A fascinating and provocative overview of human paleontology..."--Booklist "This lively, opinionated, personal account offers rare histories, hoaxes, and scientific fads; a readable, up-to-date account of current theory; and a healthy skepticism based on the author's own quest for our origins."--Natural History

Ian Tattersall is Head of the Anthropology Department at the American Museum of Natural History, where he was Curator in Charge of the Hall of Human Biology and Evolution, which opened in 1993.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780195061017
ISBN 10	0195061012
Title	Fossil Trail
Author	Tattersall
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Oxford University Press Inc
Year published	1995-03-16
Number of pages	288
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable