本书原定价35.00美元，净重700克，非馆藏。【图书分类：古人类学】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 our 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 colorful 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 Lamarck 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 many 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 female hominid, some 40% 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 many techniques available to analyze finds, from fluorine analysis (developed in the 1950s, it exposed Piltdown as a hoax) and 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 genera 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 paleoanthropology, 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 within the context of their social and scientific milleu, to reveal the insidious ways that the received wisdom can shape how we interpret fossil findings, that what we expect to find colors our understanding of what we do find. Refreshingly opinionated and vividly narrated, The Fossil Trail is the only book available to general readers that offers a full history of our study of human evolution. A fascinating story with intriguing turns along the way, this well-illustrated volume is essential reading for anyone curious about our human origins.
Ideal for courses in Human Evolution, History of Paleoanthropology, and as a supplement for Introduction to Biological Anthropology, The Fossil Trail is a history of paleoanthropological thought and discovery. Ian Tattersall's account of the study of human evolution offers a colorful history of fossil discoveries and a revealing insider's look at how these finds have been interpreted-and misinterpreted-through time. The second edition of The Fossil Trail brings the text up-to-date with a look at what has happened in paleoanthropology in the thirteen intervening years since the first edition's publication. There has been not only a dramatic increase in the size and scope of the human fossil record, but the introduction of new techniques of analysis and of ways of interpreting that record. Through it all, Tattersall discusses the great researchers and discoveries within the context of their social and scientific milieu to reveal the many forces that shape how we interpret fossil findings, and to give a picture of what lies ahead for the field. The Second Edition updates the original first fifteen chapters with the most recent research. The new edition also features a substantially revised Chapter 16, which provides a bridge to later developments about the Neanderthals and their precursors. Tattersall has also added two new chapters that cover the discoveries published over the past thirteen years. Chapter 17 launches a discussion of the state of paleoanthropology at the turn of the 21st Century, and Chapter 18 ties our most recent knowledge back to the beginning to look at where we've been and where we're headed. The author has also added a new gallery of maps of fossil sites-including Western Europe, Central Europe, The Caucuses and Near East, East Asia, Northern Africa, and Southern Africa-and updated the opening timeline to include the discovery of nearly 20 new species.
Contents： Chapter 1 : Before Darwin; TIME AND THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE; ENTER THE ANTIQUARIANS; PALEONTOLOGY; NEANDERTHAL DEBUT ; Chapter 2 : Darwin and After; NATURAL SELECTION; EARLY DISQUISITIONS ON NEANDERTHALS; ANTIQUARIANISM TRANSFORMS INTO ARCHAEOLOGY; EVOLVING NOTIONS OF EARLY HUMANS ; Chapter 3 : Pithecanthropus; JAVA MAN; CHANGING VIEWS OF THE NEANDERTHALS ; Chapter 4 : The Early Twentieth Century; GENETICS AND SPECIES; THE HOMINID FOSSIL RECORD GROWS; DAWSON'S DAWN MAN; THE "NEANDERTHAL PHASE OF MAN" ; Chapter 5 : Out of Africa; AUSTRALOPITHECUS; PEKING MAN; BACK TO JAVA ; Chapter 6 : ... Always Something New; INTERNATIONAL ACCEPTANCE; A PROPHET IN HIS OWN COUNTRY ..; AFRICAN GENESIS; OLDUVAI GORGE; OUTSIDE AFRICA ; Chapter 7 : The Synthesis; A REMARKABLE CONVERGENCE; POPULATION THINKING; PALEOANTHROPOLOGY CAPITULATES; RADIOMETRIC DATING; THE RECORD EXPANDS AND STEREOTYPES FALL ; Chapter 8 : Olduvai Gorge; ZINJANTHROPUS; HANDY MAN ; Chapter 9 : Rama's Ape Meets the Mighty Molecule; A NEW HOMINID; A TOP-HEAVY EDIFICE; ENTER THE MOLECULES; WHAT IS A HOMINID? ; Chapter 10 : Omo and Turkana; HOMINID CATASTROPHISM AND THE SINGLE-SPECIES HYPOTHESIS; THE OMO AND ETHIOPIA; KOOBI FORA AND THE TURKANA BASIN; THE ARTIFACTUAL RECORD; MORE FROM KOOBI FORA; Chapter 11 : Hadar, Lucy and Laetoli; HADAR, LUCY AND THE FIRST FAMILY; BODO AND LAETOLI; ONE SPECIES OR TWO?; BIPEDS AND CLIMBERS?; WHY BIPEDALITY? ; Chapter 12 : Theory Intrudes; PHYLETIC GRADUALISM OR PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIA?; RECONSTRUCTING PHYLOGENY; SCENARIOS AND TREES ; Chapter 13 : Eurasia and Africa: Odds and Ends; THE CHINESE RECORD; HOMO HEIDELBERGENSIS; COMPLEX LIFEWAYS; ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRANSITION; EAST AND SOUTH ; Chapter 14 : Turkana and Olduvai - Again; THE "TURKANA BOY"; BACK TO OLDUVAI; THE UNTHINKABLE THOUGHT; THE BLACK SKULL; GRACILES AND ROBUSTS; FAUNAL TURNOVER ; Chapter 15 : The Cave-Man Vanishes; UNDERSTANDING THE CAVES; DIVERSE RECORDS; A COMPLEX PICTURE; EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY; OTHER INFLUENCES; THE NEANDERTHAL VIEW OF THE WORLD ; Chapter 16 : Candelabras and Continuity; THE MULTIREGIONAL MODEL; THE DIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE; A SINGLE ORIGIN; THE MIGHTY MITOCHONDRION; REFINEMENTS IN DATING; LEVANTINE COEXISTENCE ; Chapter 17 : Another Fin de Siecle; DIET AND ISOTOPES; NEANDERTHAL ENVIRONMENTAL PREFERENCES; THE NEANDERTHAL BODY; DNA FROM NEANDERTHALS; HYBRID RED HERRINGS; HITECH MORPHOMETRY; ATAPUERCA: A FOSSIL CORNUCOPIA; DIVERSITY AMONG EARLY EUROPEANS; OUT OF AFRICA FOR THE FIRST TIME; MOVING EAST; "AFRICAN HOMO ERECTUS": MORE DIVERSITY?; EARLY HOMO SAPIENS?; EVO-DEVO; A "HUMAN REVOLUTION"?; "ADAMS" AND "EVES"; THE MYSTERIOUS HOMINID OF FLORES ; Chapter 18 : Back to the Beginning; A VERITABLE MENU OF EARLIEST HOMINIDS; MILLENNIUM MAN; SAHELANTHROPUS; BACK TO KENYA; MORE ENTRANTS; HADAR AGAIN; A TALE OF TWO SKELETONS; A NEW "ROBUST"; ISOTOPES AGAIN; NEW AUSTRALOPITHS FROM ETHIOPIA; HOMO REVISITED; PROSPECTS ; Chapter 19 : So, Where Are We?; SYSTEMATICS - THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE HOMINIDS; BECOMING HUMAN
From Publishers Weekly： Head of Manhattan's American Museum of Natural History's anthropology department, Tattersall here weaves a vigorous historical narrative of paleontologists' attempts to reconstruct human origins from the fossil record. Beginning with the unearthing of Neanderthals and "Java Man," he carefully sifts through a remarkable succession of hominid finds from Africa, Eurasia, China, Indonesia and Israel, including Don Johanson's 1973 discovery in Ethiopia of "Lucy," a 3.4-million-year-old female hominid skeleton, and the Leakey team's 1984 find, "Turkana Boy," a 1.6-million-year-old Homo erectus skeleton uncovered in Kenya. Citing disagreements among scientists over interpretations of radiocarbon dating, comparative anatomy and biochemical techniques, Tattersall unreels a catalogue of paleoanthropological misidentifications, dogmas and misperceptions. He draws a hypothetical evolutionary tree that includes three genera of our hominid ancestors-Homo and Australopithecus (accepted by conventional wisdom) plus a new genus, Paranthropus-altogether embracing a dozen species leading to Homo sapiens. Illustrated. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal： This informative and highly readable introduction to paleoanthropology by the head of the anthropology department at the American Museum of Natural History surveys the major discoveries in hominid evolution (fossils and artifacts) and examines both past and present principal interpretations of this growing empirical evidence for the complex emergence of humankind. Important fossils from Olduvai and other sites are critically discussed in terms of modern hominid taxonomy within the framework of climatic fluctuations, environmental changes, and morphological variety (species diversity). Throughout this detailed story, Tattersall argues against both human orthogenesis and the one-species hypothesis for explaining hominid evolution. He focuses on australopithecine diversity and behavior, those questions still surrounding Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis, and the recent appearance of our own unique species in Africa. A fascinating and provocative overview of human paleontology that is highly recommended for all anthropology collections. H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, N.Y. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist： Tattersall is curator of human evolution exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History, which coincidentally sponsors the stunning Illustrated History of Humankind, the fourth volume of which is New World and Pacific Civilizations, edited by Goran Burenhult . Tattersall's independent volume cuts back on the visual spectaculars in favor of more detail about paleoanthropology. As much concerned with the dialectic of scientific advancement as with the specific, though fragmentary, fossil evidence, Tattersall courses through the interpretations of excavated discoveries since the days of Darwin. Given the meager evidence, a skull from China, a tooth from Java, most theories about the relics' relationship to modern humans are necessarily provisional, and with consummate objectivity, Tattersall outlines the debates about speciation or classification (the latter his own microspecialty), yet he doesn't shrink from offering his own opinions. Modern dating techniques have begun to sort out viable theories from crackpot notions, but Tattersall reminds us that somewhere in the eroding deposits lining Africa's Great Rift Valley there lurks the next Lucy, Turkana Boy, or Laetoli footprints that could completely revolutionize the field. That sense of ongoing discovery should appeal to the detail-demanding reader for whom even the best-done illustrated book is not enough. Gilbert Taylor
Review： "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
About the Author： 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.
直播中，去观看
占位居中
