Extinct Humans

Ian Tattersall, Jeffrey Schwartz

ISBN 10: 0813339189 / ISBN 13: 9780813339184

Published by Basic Books December 2001, 2001

About this Item

Slight Shelf wear corners are lightly creased.

Seller Inventory # 301097

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Extinct Humans
• Publisher: Basic Books December 2001
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813339189
• ISBN 13: 9780813339184
• Binding: Paper Back
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science::Anthropology

About this title

Synopsis

Scientists have long envisioned the human “family tree” as a straight-line progression from the apelike australopithecines to the enigmatic Homo habilis to the famous Neanderthals, culminating in us, Homo sapiens. But this model is unlike the evolutionary patterns known for all other vertebrates—patterns that typically reveal multiple branchings and extinctions. In Extinct Humans, Ian Tattersall and Jeffrey Schwartz present convincing evidence that many distinct species of humans have existed during the history of the hominid family, often simultaneously. Furthermore, these species may have contributed to one another's extinction. Who were these different human species? Which are direct ancestors to us? And, the most profound question of all, why is there only a single human species alive on Earth now?

About the Author

Ian Tattersall is Chairman and Curator of the Department of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History and adjunct professor of anthropology at Columbia University. His books include The Fossil Train, The Human Odyssey, Becoming Human, and The Myths of Human Evolution (with Niles Eldredge). Jeffrey Schwartz is professor of physical anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh and a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. He is the author of The Red Ape, What Bones Tell Us, and Skeleton Keys.