MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 04599mam a2200397 a 4500
001 1594065
005 20220608194214.0
008 940718s1995 nyuab b 001 0 eng
010 $a 94031633
020 $a0195061012 (acid-free paper)
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm30972979
035 $9AKJ7740CU
035 $a1594065
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dGZM$dLDL$dOrLoB
050 00 $aGN281$b.T357 1995
082 00 $a573.2$220
100 1 $aTattersall, Ian.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50000465
245 14 $aThe fossil trail :$bhow we know what we think we know about human evolution /$cIan Tattersall.
260 $aNew York :$bOxford University Press,$c1995.
263 $a9501
300 $axi, 276 pages :$billustrations, maps ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 249-262) and index.
520 $aOne 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.
520 8 $aToday 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?
520 8 $a.
520 8 $aIn 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.
520 8 $aWe 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.
520 8 $aHe 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.
520 8 $aAnd perhaps most important, Tattersall looks at all these great researchers and discoveries within the context of their social and scientific milieu, 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.
520 8 $aRefreshingly opinionated and vividly narrated, The Fossil Trail is the only book available to general readers that others 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.
650 0 $aHuman evolution.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85062868
650 0 $aFossil hominids.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85051024
650 0 $aAnthropology, Prehistoric.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85005586
852 00 $bglg$hGN281$i.T357 1995