The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution - Hardcover

Tattersall, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195061012 ISBN 13: 9780195061017

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1995

Synopsis

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.

About this title

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.

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0195061012
• ISBN 13: 9780195061017
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288