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| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: When We Became Humans Michael Bright, 2019-07-16 What makes us human, and where did we come from? How did a clever ape climb down from the trees and change the world like no other animal has done before? This large-format, highly illustrated book guides readers through the key aspects of the human story, from the anatomical changes that allowed us to walk upright and increased brain size in our ancestors, to the social, cultural, and economic developments of our more recent cousins and our own species. Along the way, focus spreads take a closer look at some of the key species in our history, from the ancient Australopithecus Afarensis, 'Lucy', to our recent cousins the Neanderthals and ourselves, Homo sapiens. â??Looking beyond the anatomical evolution of humans, this book explores how our culture and way of living has evolved, from how trails of cowry shells reveal early trade between tribes, to how and why humans first domesticated dogs, horses, and farm animals, and began settling in permanent villages and cities. Through digestible information and absorbing illustration, young readers will be given an insight into their own origins, and what it really means to be a human. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: When We Became Humans Michael Bright, 2020 Explores the history of human origins, highlighting such early humans as Ardipithecus, Homo habilis, Neanderthals, and Homo erectus. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: When the Whales Walked Dougal Dixon, 2018-10-18 From the moment life crawled out of the oceans and onto land, to when our primate ancestors climbed down from the trees, the history of Planet Earth is filled with incredible stories. This beautifully illustrated guide explores some of the most exciting and incredible events in evolution, through 13 case studies. Step back in time and discover a world where whales once walked, crocodiles were warm-blooded and snakes had legs! Meet terrifying giant birds, and tiny elephants living on islands in this fascinating creature guide like no other. Learn how whales once walked on four legs before taking to the oceans; how dinosaurs evolved into birds; and how the first cats were small and lived in trees. Featuring a stunning mix of annotated illustrations, illustrated scenes and family trees, evolution is explained here in a captivating and novel style that will make children look at animals in a whole new way. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: A Pocket History of Human Evolution: How We Became Sapiens Silvana Condemi, François Savatier, 2019-11-01 Why aren’t we more like other apes? How did we win the evolutionary race? Find out how “wise” Homo sapiens really are. Prehistory has never been more exciting: New discoveries are overturning long-held theories left and right. Stone tools in Australia date back 65,000 years—a time when, we once thought, the first Sapiens had barely left Africa. DNA sequencing has unearthed a new hominid group—the Denisovans—and confirmed that crossbreeding with them (and Neanderthals) made Homo sapiens who we are today. A Pocket History of Human Evolution brings us up-to-date on the exploits of all our ancient relatives. Paleoanthropologist Silvana Condemi and science journalist François Savatier consider what accelerated our evolution: Was it tools, our “large” brains, language, empathy, or something else entirely? And why are we the sole survivors among many early bipedal humans? Their conclusions reveal the various ways ancient humans live on today—from gossip as modern “grooming” to our gendered division of labor—and what the future might hold for our strange and unique species. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Amazing Evolution Anna Claybourne, 2019-04-11 Evolution can be a difficult idea to wrap our brains around: it deals with random, unlikely events, combined with vast lengths of time too enormous to comprehend. But the evidence is all around us – in the fossils of long-dead creatures, and in our genes and the relationships between all living beings. Amazing Evolution shines a light on this incredible process, from the beginnings of life around 3.8 billion years ago, to the millions of different species alive today, including the moon-walking, talking apes with super-powerful brains – human beings! Filled with clear explanations, beautiful illustrations and fascinating facts about the planet’s strangest and most spectacular creatures, Amazing Evolution will keep children (and adults, too!) enthralled for hours. Delve into the pages and learn what makes a fish a fish, why giraffes have such long necks and how all living things, from cabbages to tigers, are related! |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Ancient Bones Madelaine Böhme, Rüdiger Braun, Florian Breier, 2020-09-08 Splendid and important... Scientifically rigorous and written with a clarity and candor that create a gripping tale... [Böhme's] account of the history of Europe's lost apes is imbued with the sweat, grime, and triumph that is the lot of the fieldworker, and carries great authority. —Tim Flannery, The New York Review of Books In this fascinating forensic inquiry into human origins (Kirkus STARRED Review), a renowned paleontologist takes readers behind-the-scenes of one of the most groundbreaking archaeological digs in recent history. Somewhere west of Munich, paleontologist Madelaine Böhme and her colleagues dig for clues to the origins of humankind. What they discover is beyond anything they ever imagined: the twelve-million-year-old bones of Danuvius guggenmosi make headlines around the world. This ancient ape defies prevailing theories of human history—his skeletal adaptations suggest a new common ancestor between apes and humans, one that dwelled in Europe, not Africa. Might the great apes that traveled from Africa to Europe before Danuvius's time be the key to understanding our own origins? All this and more is explored in Ancient Bones. Using her expertise as a paleoclimatologist and paleontologist, Böhme pieces together an awe-inspiring picture of great apes that crossed land bridges from Africa to Europe millions of years ago, evolving in response to the challenging conditions they found. She also takes us behind the scenes of her research, introducing us to former theories of human evolution (complete with helpful maps and diagrams), and walks us through musty museum overflow storage where she finds forgotten fossils with yellowed labels, before taking us along to the momentous dig where she and the team unearthed Danuvius guggenmosi himself—and the incredible reverberations his discovery caused around the world. Praise for Ancient Bones: Readable and thought-provoking. Madelaine Böhme is an iconoclast whose fossil discoveries have challenged long-standing ideas on the origins of the ancestors of apes and humans. —Steve Brusatte, New York Times-bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs An inherently fascinating, impressively informative, and exceptionally thought-provoking read. —Midwest Book Review An impressive introduction to the burgeoning recalibration of paleoanthropology. —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Ancestors in Our Genome Eugene E. Harris, 2014-10-31 The complete DNA molecules comprising the human genome were deciphered two decades ago. With this discovery began a remarkable genomic voyage back in time yielding a new science of human evolution. We are just beginning to unravel our full genomic history and answering age-old questions about how and when we evolved. For the first time, we are finding our ancestors in our genome and gleaning tantalizing clues about our past. Molecular anthropologist Eugene E. Harris now gives us an updated and expanded version of the original Ancestors in Our Genome. Written from the perspective of population genetics, and in simple terms, his book traces human origins back to our earliest human ancestors and explains how our genome has adapted as we spread to colonize new regions on Earth. Harris's book reveals the latest insights into our relationships with our extinct cousins, the Neandertals and Denisovans, and describes where, when and to what extent we mated with them, probing the good and bad consequences of this. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us Alice Roberts, 2015-11-03 From your brain to your fingertips, you emerge from her book entertained and with a deeper understanding of yourself --Richard Dawkins Alice Roberts takes you on the most incredible journey, revealing your path from a single cell to a complex embryo to a living, breathing, thinking person. It's a story that connects us with our distant ancestors and an extraordinary, unlikely chain of events that shaped human development and left a mark on all of us. Alice Roberts uses the latest research to uncover the evolutionary history hidden in all of us, from the secrets found only in our embryos and genes - including why as embroyos we have what look like gills - to those visible in your anatomy. This is a tale of discovery, exploring why and how we have developed as we have. This is your story, told as never before. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: When We Became Humans Michael Bright, 2019 |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Story of Life Catherine Barr, Steve Williams, 2018-02 At first, nothing lived on Earth. It was a noisy, hot, scary place. Choking gas exploded from volcanoes and oceans of lava bubbled around the globe... Then in the deep, dark ocean, something amazing happened. This is an exciting and dramatic story about how life began and developed on Planet Earth, written especially for younger children. The authors explain how the first living cell was created, and how the cells multiply and create jellyfish and worms, and then fish with bendy necks, which drag themselves out of the water into swampy forests. They tell the story of the biggest creatures that have ever walked on land - the dinosaurs. Long after that, hairy creatures who have babies, not eggs, take over, stand on two legs and spread around the world, some of them living through cataclysmic events such as ice ages and volcanic eruptions. Everyone living today is related to these survivors. With delightful illustrations including lots of detail and humour, all carefully researched and checked, this book shows the development of life on Earth in a truly accessible and simple way. CLICK HERE to download Teachers' Notes specially written by the authors, Catherine Barr and Steve Williams, to assist teachers and librarians in the promotion and teaching of The Story of Lifein schools and to help foster a love of good books, literature and reading in children. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: When Plants Took Over the Planet Chris Thorogood, 2021-09-07 This beautifully illustrated book follows the amazing story of plant evolution, from the first plants arriving on a dark and lifeless planet to the colorful—often weird and wonderful—world of today’s varied and vibrant plant life. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: It Started with a Big Bang Floor Bal, 2019-10-01 An accessible and engaging primer on the history of the universe and life on Earth. In this delightful book, kids can follow the fascinating story of how we got from the beginning of the universe to life today on the “bright blue ball floating in space” called Earth. They’ll learn about the big bang theory, how our solar system and planet were formed, how life on Earth began in the oceans and moved to land, what happened to the dinosaurs and how humans evolved from apes to build communities all over the planet … and even travel to space! Kids will be enthralled by this out-of-this-world look at how the universe began! |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: The Incredible Human Journey Alice Roberts, 2010 Alice Roberts has been travelling the world - from Ethiopian desert to Malay peninsula and from Russian steppes to Amazon basin - in order to understand the challenges that early humans faced as they tried to settle continents. On her travels she has witnessed some of the daunting and brutal challenges our ancestors had to face: mountains, deserts, oceans, changing climates, terrifying giant beasts and volcanoes. But she discovers that perhaps the most serious threat of all came from other humans. When our ancestors set out from Africa there were already two other species of human on the planet: Neanderthal in Europe and Homo erectus in Asia. Both (contrary to popular perception) were intelligent, adept at making tools and weapons and were long adapted to their environments. So, Alice asks, why did only Homo sapiens survive? Part detective story, part travelogue, and drawing on the latest genetic and archaeological discoveries, Alice examines how our ancestors evolved physically in response to these challenges, finding out how our colour, shape, size, diet, disease resistance and even athletic ability have been shaped by the range of environments that our ancestors had to survive. She also relates how astonishingly closely related we all are. As a lecturer in Anatomy at Bristol University, Alice Roberts is eminently qualified to write this book. As a talented artist, she is perfectly qualified to illustrate it, and dotted throughout this lively book are many of the sketches and photographs from her travels. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Thank God for Evolution Michael Dowd, 2008-06-19 Few issues have revealed deeper divisions in our society than the debate between creationism and evolution, between religion and science. Yet from the fray, Reverend Michael Dowd has emerged as a reconciler, finding faith strengthened by the power of reason. With evidence from contemporary astrophysics, geology, biology, anthropology, and evolutionary psychology, Thank God for Evolution lays out a compelling argument for how religion and science can be mutually enriching forces in our lives. Praised by Nobel laureates in the scientific community and religious leaders alike, Thank God for Evolution will expand the horizon of what is possible for self, for relationships, and for our world. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Life: The First Four Billion Years Martin Jenkins, 2019-09-10 Award-winning children’s book creators Martin Jenkins and Grahame Baker-Smith team up for a large-scale look at our planet, from the big bang to the dinosaurs and beyond. Before humans took their first steps, there were billions of years of vibrant and varied life-forms on Earth. Discover the story of our planet during this time, from the formation of the universe to the first mammals and all the incredible life that flourished in between. Covering ice ages and fossils, the first life in the sea and on land, the time of the dinosaurs, and the rise of mammals, Martin Jenkins navigates through millennia of prehistory in a style both enthralling and accessible. With superb illustrations from Kate Greenaway Medal winner Grahame Baker-Smith, this is a captivating journey through the life of our planet before we called it ours. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Your Inner Fish Neil Shubin, 2009-01-06 The paleontologist and professor of anatomy who co-discovered Tiktaalik, the “fish with hands,” tells a “compelling scientific adventure story that will change forever how you understand what it means to be human” (Oliver Sacks). By examining fossils and DNA, he shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our heads are organized like long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genomes look and function like those of worms and bacteria. Your Inner Fish makes us look at ourselves and our world in an illuminating new light. This is science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible and told with irresistible enthusiasm. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Maroo of the Winter Caves Ann Turnbull, 2004 Maroo, a girl of the late Ice Age, must take charge after her father is killed, and lead her little brother, mother, and aged grandmother to the safety of the winter camp before the first blizzards strike. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: The Journey of Man Spencer Wells, 2017-03-28 Around 60,000 years ago, a man, genetically identical to us, lived in Africa. Every person alive today is descended from him. How did this real-life Adam wind up as the father of us all? What happened to the descendants of other men who lived at the same time? And why, if modern humans share a single prehistoric ancestor, do we come in so many sizes, shapes, and races? Examining the hidden secrets of human evolution in our genetic code, the author reveals how developments in the revolutionary science of population genetics have made it possible to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. Replete with marvelous anecdotes and remarkable information, from the truth about the real Adam and Eve to the way differing racial types emerged, this book is an enthralling, epic tour through the history and development of early humankind. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: The Story of the Human Body Daniel E. Lieberman, 2014-07-01 A landmark book of popular science that gives us a lucid and engaging account of how the human body evolved over millions of years—with charts and line drawings throughout. “Fascinating.... A readable introduction to the whole field and great on the making of our physicality.”—Nature In this book, Daniel E. Lieberman illuminates the major transformations that contributed to key adaptations to the body: the rise of bipedalism; the shift to a non-fruit-based diet; the advent of hunting and gathering; and how cultural changes like the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions have impacted us physically. He shows how the increasing disparity between the jumble of adaptations in our Stone Age bodies and advancements in the modern world is occasioning a paradox: greater longevity but increased chronic disease. And finally—provocatively—he advocates the use of evolutionary information to help nudge, push, and sometimes even compel us to create a more salubrious environment and pursue better lifestyles. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Evolution Alice Roberts, 2023-05-04 Travel back in time almost eight million years to explore the roots of the human family tree. Written and authenticated by a team of experts and with a foreword by Professor Alice Roberts, Evolution brings us face to face with our ancestors. Interweaving latest discoveries, maps, and incredible illustrations, it tells the story of our origins and helps us better understand our species, from tree-dwelling primates to modern humans. Renowned Dutch paleoartists the Kennis brothers bring our ancestors to life with their beautiful, accurate reconstructions that visually trace each step in our evolutionary history. Combined with clear prose, this comprehensive yet accessible book provides a rich history of each stage of human evolution, from human anatomy and behaviour to the environment we live in. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Earth Before the Dinosaurs Sébastien Steyer, 2012-06 Explores the Earth prior to dinosaurs and examines the creatures that lived here. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: A Brief History of Life on Earth Clémence Dupont, 2018-11 The story of life on earth unfolds in dramatic fashion in this amazing concertina picture book that takes readers from 4.6 billion years ago to the present day. Fully expanded to 8 meters (26 feet), this spectacular visual timeline is a very impressive panorama that reveals evolution in all its glory. Full color. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Sapiens [Tenth Anniversary Edition] Yuval Noah Harari, 2025-02-18 New York Times Readers’ Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century The tenth anniversary edition of the internationally bestselling phenomenon that cemented Yuval Noah Harari as one of the most prominent historians of our time—featuring a new afterword from the author. One hundred thousand years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations, and human rights; to trust money, books, and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables, and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come? In Sapiens, Professor Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical—and sometimes devastating—breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural, and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, paleontology, and economics, and incorporating full-color illustrations throughout the text, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Can we ever free our behavior from the legacy of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come? Bold, wide-ranging, and provocative, Sapiens integrates history and science to challenge everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our heritage...and our future. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Wildhood Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, Kathryn Bowers, 2019-09-17 Publishers Weekly Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2019 A New York Times Editor’s Pick People Best Books Fall 2019 Chicago Tribune 28 Books You Need to Read Now Booklist’s Top Ten Sci-Tech Books of 2019 “It blew my mind to discover that teenage animals and teenage humans are so similar. Both are naive risk-takers. I loved this book!” —Temple Grandin, author of Animals Make Us Human and Animals in Translation A revelatory investigation of human and animal adolescence and young adulthood from the New York Times bestselling authors of Zoobiquity. With Wildhood, Harvard evolutionary biologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and award-winning science writer Kathryn Bowers have created an entirely new way of thinking about the crucial, vulnerable, and exhilarating phase of life between childhood and adulthood across the animal kingdom. In their critically acclaimed bestseller, Zoobiquity, the authors revealed the essential connection between human and animal health. In Wildhood, they turn the same eye-opening, species-spanning lens to adolescent young adult life. Traveling around the world and drawing from their latest research, they find that the same four universal challenges are faced by every adolescent human and animal on earth: how to be safe, how to navigate hierarchy; how to court potential mates; and how to feed oneself. Safety. Status. Sex. Self-reliance. How human and animal adolescents and young adults confront the challenges of wildhood shapes their adult destinies. Natterson-Horowitz and Bowers illuminate these core challenges through the lives of four animals in the wild: Ursula, a young king penguin; Shrink, a charismatic hyena; Salt, a matriarchal humpback whale; and Slavc, a roaming European wolf. Through their riveting stories—and those of countless others, from adventurous eagles and rambunctious high schooler to inexperienced orcas and naive young soldiers—readers get a vivid and game-changing portrait of adolescent young adults as a horizontal tribe, sharing behaviors and challenges, setbacks and triumphs. Upending our understanding of everything from risk-taking and anxiety to the origins of privilege and the nature of sexual coercion and consent, Wildhood is a profound and necessary guide to the perilous, thrilling, and universal journey to adulthood on planet earth. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: When We Became Humans Michael Bright, 2019 What makes us human, and where did we come from? How did a clever ape climb down from the trees and change the world like no other animal has done before? This large-format, highly illustrated book guides readers through the key aspects of the human story, from the anatomical changes that allowed us to walk upright and increased brain size in our ancestors, to the social, cultural, and economic developments of our more recent cousins and our own species. Along the way, focus spreads take a closer look at some of the key species in our history, from the ancient Australopithecus Afarensis, 'Lucy', to our recent cousins the Neanderthals and ourselves, Homo sapiens. Looking beyond the anatomical evolution of humans, this book explores how our culture and way of living has evolved, from how trails of cowry shells reveal early trade between tribes, to how and why humans first domesticated dogs, horses, and farm animals, and began settling in permanent villages and cities. Through digestible information and absorbing illustration, young readers will be given an insight into their own origins, and what it really means to be a human. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Julian Jaynes, 2000-08-15 National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Born in Africa Martin Meredith, 2011-08-18 Africa does not give up its secrets easily. Buried there lie answers about the origins of humankind and the dawn of civilisation. Through a century of archaeological investigation, scientists have transformed our understanding of the beginnings of human life, although vital clues still remain hidden. In Born in Africa, Martin Meredith follows the trail of discoveries about our human origins made by scientists over the last hundred years, as well as describing the history of scholarship in this incredibly exciting field. He relates the intense rivalries, personal feuds and fierce controversies that shaped the study and perception of Africa, and recounts the feats of skill and endurance that have illuminated thousands of years of human evolution. The results have been momentous. Scientists have identified more than twenty species of extinct humans and firmly established Africa as the birthplace not only of humankind, but also of our own species: homo sapiens, the modern human. Scientific study has revealed how early technology, language ability and artistic endeavour all originated in Africa, and scientists have shown how, in an exodus sixty thousand years ago, small groups of Africans left their birthplace to populate the rest of the world. We all have an African legacy, and in this fascinating and informative book Martin Meredith leads us back to the place where we have rediscovered our common human heritage. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Transcendence Gaia Vince, 2020-01-21 In the tradition of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Sapiens, a winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books shows how four tools enabled has us humans to control the destiny of our species A wondrous, visionary work. --Tim Flannery, scientist and author of the bestselling The Weather Makers What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Readers of Sapiens will say a cognitive revolution -- a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones -- caused a cultural explosion. In Transcendence, Gaia Vince argues instead that modern humans are the product of a nuanced coevolution of our genes, environment, and culture that goes back into deep time. She explains how, through four key elements -- fire, language, beauty, and time -- our species diverged from the evolutionary path of all other animals, unleashing a compounding process that launched us into the Space Age and beyond. Provocative and poetic, Transcendence shows how a primate took dominion over nature and turned itself into something marvelous. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: The Origin of Our Species Chris Stringer, 2012 Chris Stringer's bestselling The Origin of our Species tackles the big questions in the ongoing debate about the beginnings of human life on earth. Do all humans originate from Africa? How did we spread across the globe? Are we separate from Neanderthals, or do some of us actually have their genes? When did humans become 'modern' - are traits such as art, technology, language, ritual and belief unique to us? Has human evolution stopped, or are we still evolving? Chris Stringer has been involved in much of the crucial research into the origins of humanity, and here he draws on a wealth of evidence - from fossils and archaeology to Charles Darwin's theories and the mysteries of ancient DNA - to reveal the definitive story of where we came from, how we lived, how we got here and who we are. 'A new way of defining us and our place in history' Sunday Times 'When it comes to human evolution Chris Stringer is as close to the horse's mouth as it gets ... The Origin of Our Species should be the one-stop source on the subject. Read it now' BBC Focus 'Britain's foremost expert on human evolution ... you need a primer to make sense of the story so far. Here is that book' Guardian 'Combines anecdote and speculation with crisp explanation of the latest science in the study of the first humans ... an engaging read' New Scientist Chris Stringer is Britain's foremost expert on human origins and works in the Department of Palaeontology at the Natural History Museum. He also currently directs the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project, aimed at reconstructing the first detailed history of how and when Britain was occupied by early humans. His previous books include African Exodus- The Origins of Modern Humanity, The Complete World of Human Evolutionand most recently, Homo Britannicus, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book of the Year in 2007. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Eyes to See Michael Land, 2018-11-15 Vision is the sense by which we and other animals obtain most of our information about the world around us. Darwin appreciated that at first sight it seems absurd that the human eye could have evolved by natural selection. But we now know far more about vision, the many times it has independently evolved in nature, and the astonishing variety of ways to see. The human eye, with a lens forming an image on a sensitive retina, represents just one. Scallops, shrimps, and lobsters all use mirrors in different ways. Jumping spiders scan with their front-facing eyes to check whether the object in front is an insect to eat, another spider to mate with, or a predator to avoid. Mantis shrimps can even measure the polarization of light. Animal eyes are amazing structures, often involving precision optics and impressive information processing, mainly using wet protein - not the substance an engineer would choose for such tasks. In Eyes to See, Michael Land, one of the leading world experts on vision, explores the varied ways in which sight has evolved and is used in the natural world, and describes some of the ingenious experiments researchers have used to uncover its secrets. He also discusses human vision, including his experiments on how our eye movements help us to do everyday tasks, as well as skilled ones such as sight-reading music or driving. He ends by considering the fascinating problem of how the constantly shifting images from our eyes are converted in the brain into the steady and integrated conscious view of the world we experience. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species , 2019-10-29 A picture book adaptation of Charles Darwin's groundbreaking On the Origin of Species, lushly illustrated and told in accessible and engaging easy-to-understand text for young readers. On the Origin of Species revolutionized our understanding of the natural world. Now young readers can discover Charles Darwin's groundbreaking theory of evolution for themselves in this stunning picture-book adaptation that uses stylish illustrations and simple text to introduce how species form, develop, and change over time. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Tamed Alice Roberts, 2017 **'A masterpiece of evocative scientific storytelling.' BRIAN COX** **'The best popular book on broad-sweep history since Guns, Germs and Steel.'** Peter Forbes The extraordinary story of the species that became our allies. For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors depended on wild plants and animals for survival. They were hunter-gatherers, consummate foraging experts, taking the world as they found it. Then a revolution occurred - our ancestors' interaction with other species changed. They began to tame them. The human population boomed; civilisation began. In Tamed, Alice Roberts uncovers the deep history of ten familiar species with incredible wild pasts: dogs, apples and wheat; cattle, potatoes and chickens; rice, maize and horses - and, finally, humans. She reveals how becoming part of our world changed these animals and plants, and shows how they became our allies, essential to the survival and success of our own species. Enlightening, wide-ranging and endlessly fascinating, Tamed encompasses thousands of years of history and archaeology alongside cutting-edge genetics and anthropology. Yet it is also a deeply personal journey that changes how we see ourselves and the species on which we have left our mark. AN ECONOMIST AND MAIL ON SUNDAY 'BOOK OF THE YEAR' 2017 |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: First Steps Jeremy DeSilva, 2021-04-06 A Science News Best Science Book of the Year: “A brilliant, fun, and scientifically deep stroll through history, anatomy, and evolution.” —Agustín Fuentes, PhD, author of The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional Winner of the W.W. Howells Book Prize from the American Anthropological Association Blending history, science, and culture, this highly engaging evolutionary story explores how walking on two legs allowed humans to become the planet’s dominant species. Humans are the only mammals to walk on two rather than four legs—a locomotion known as bipedalism. We strive to be upstanding citizens, honor those who stand tall and proud, and take a stand against injustices. We follow in each other’s footsteps and celebrate a child’s beginning to walk. But why, and how, exactly, did we take our first steps? And at what cost? Bipedalism has its drawbacks: giving birth is more difficult and dangerous; our running speed is much slower than other animals; and we suffer a variety of ailments, from hernias to sinus problems. In First Steps, paleoanthropologist Jeremy DeSilva explores how unusual and extraordinary this seemingly ordinary ability is. A seven-million-year journey to the very origins of the human lineage, this book shows how upright walking was a gateway to many of the other attributes that make us human—from our technological abilities to our thirst for exploration and our use of language—and may have laid the foundation for our species’ traits of compassion, empathy, and altruism. Moving from developmental psychology labs to ancient fossil sites throughout Africa and Eurasia, DeSilva brings to life our adventure walking on two legs. Includes photographs “A book that strides confidently across this complex terrain, laying out what we know about how walking works, who started doing it, and when.” —The New York Times Book Review “DeSilva makes a solid scientific case with an expert history of human and ape evolution.” —Kirkus Reviews “A brisk jaunt through the history of bipedalism . . . will leave readers both informed and uplifted.” —Publishers Weekly “Breezy popular science at its best.” —Science News |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Last Lecture Perfection Learning Corporation, 2019 |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Adventures in the Anthropocene Gaia Vince, 2014-07-03 ** Winner of Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2015 ** We live in epoch-making times. The changes we humans have made in recent decades have altered our world beyond anything it has experienced in its 4.6 billion-year history. As a result, our planet is said to be crossing into the Anthropocene – the Age of Humans. Gaia Vince decided to travel the world at the start of this new age to see what life is really like for the people on the frontline of the planet we’ve made. From artificial glaciers in the Himalayas to painted mountains in Peru, electrified reefs in the Maldives to garbage islands in the Caribbean, Gaia found people doing the most extraordinary things to solve the problems that we ourselves have created. These stories show what the Anthropocene means for all of us – and they illuminate how we might engineer Earth for our future. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: My Best Book of Early People Margaret Hynes, Mike White, 2019-06-11 Travel back in time to discover who our early ancestors wereThe Best Book of Early People is the perfect introduction to the advances of humankind from its primitive beginnings. How did Neanderthals make tools? Who were the first artists? When was writing invented? This book has the answers! |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Homo Britannicus Chris Stringer, 2007-06-28 HOMO BRITANNICUS tells the epic history of life in Britain, from man’s very first footsteps to the present day. Drawing on all the latest evidence and techniques of investigation, Chris Stringer describes times when Britain was so tropical that man lived alongside hippos and sabre tooth tiger, times so cold we shared this land with reindeer and mammoth, and times colder still when we were forced to flee altogether. This is the first time we have known the full extent of this history: the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project, led by Chris, has made discoveries that have stunned the world, pushing back the earliest date of arrival to 700,000 years ago. Our ancestors have been fighting a dramatic battle for survival here ever since. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Life as We Made It Beth Shapiro, 2021-10-21 A Times Best Book of 2021 From the very first dog to glowing fish and designer pigs – the human history of remaking nature. Virus-free mosquitoes, resurrected dinosaurs, designer humans – such is the power of the science of tomorrow. But the idea that humans have only recently begun to tinker with the natural world is false. We’ve been meddling with nature since the last ice age, and we’re getting a lot better at it. Drawing on decades of research, Beth Shapiro reveals the surprisingly long history of human intervention in evolution – for good and for ill – and looks ahead to the future, casting aside scaremongering myths about the dangers of interference. New biotechnologies can present us with the chance to improve our own lives, and increase the likelihood that we will continue to live in a rich and biologically diverse world. |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Annabelle and Aiden Joseph Becker, 2017-02-01 |
| when we became humans our incredible evolutionary journey: Powerful Thinking Adrienne Gear, 2024-03-18 An inspiring book to help teachers shift their beliefs and “stretch” their thinking around reading comprehension, literacy instruction, and content-area learning. Using the key concepts and strategies introduced in her ground-breaking book, Reading Power, Adrienne Gear shows teachers practical ways to create a “culture of thinking” that can be integrated into all areas of learning. Using knowledge-rich texts as tools, Adrienne shares how read-alouds can be used in content areas to support literacy skills and build knowledge. This timely book offers classroom-tested lessons and anchor books to create a content-rich learning environment that helps strengthen student learning and knowledge-building. |
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The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to …
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