Paleoclimate and Evolution, with Emphasis on Human Origins

This book focuses on how climatic change during the last fifteen million years―especially the last three million―has affected human evolution and other evolutionary events. Leading evolutionists and physical geologists from all over the world―authorities on such subjects as paleoceanography, palynology, mammalian paleontology, and paleoanthropology―address the relationship between climatic and biotic evolution, presenting and integrating the most up-to-date research in their fields.

Among the subjects discussed are: global and regional climatic changes; tectonism and its effects on climate; the evolution of biomes and mammals; the ways climate might have influenced the origins of hominid species; and the evolution of hominid morphologies and behaviors. The book draws on the comparatively rich data base of the Late Neogene and includes many new data sets and hypotheses on paleoclimatic changes and on floral and mammalian evolution.

Elisabeth S. Vrba is professor of geology and geophysics, adjunct professor of biology, and director of ECOSAVE CENTER at Yale University. George H. Denton is professor of geological sciences and Quaternary studies at the University of Maine. Timothy C. Partridge is senior research officer, Climatology Research Group; research associate, Paleoanthropology Research Unit; and honorary professor of physical geography at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Lloyd H. Burckle is adjunct research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, New York.