The Last Neanderthal: The Rise, Success, and Mysterious Extinction of Our Closest Human Relatives - Hardcover

Tattersall, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0028608135 ISBN 13: 9780028608136

Publisher: Macmillan General Reference, 1995

Synopsis

Examines the scientific evidence of Neanderthal man, describing the way he lived and exploring how and why he may have become extinct

About this title

About the Author

Ian Tattersall is the Chairman and Curator of the Department of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and adjunct professor at Columbia.

Reviews

Tattersall, a polished presenter of paleoanthropology (The Fossil Trail ), turns this album toward a specific vexation of the field: the relation of our species to the Neanderthals. Do they constitute lineal ancestors or a separate evolutionary branch? Were they exterminated or absorbed by humans about 30,000 years ago? Interpretations of the evidence excite strenuous debate among the experts, as chronicled in James Shreeve's The Neandertal Enigma , so what's a curious amateur to make of the brouhaha? That's where Tattersall (also a museum curator) excels as he conveys the essentials of the technical literature to the public. These consist of methods by which Neanderthal sites are dated, what inferences may be drawn from the fossils' anatomy, and for background, a narrative of current knowledge about the hominid line. Abundant full-page photos of specimens and archaeological digs cement Tattersall's clarity on the topic, making this an immeasurable aid to students and armchair anthropologists alike. Gilbert Taylor

Edition details

• Publisher: Macmillan General Reference
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0028608135
• ISBN 13: 9780028608136
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208