Dawn of Man: The Story of Human Evolution - Hardcover

McKie, Robin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0789462621 ISBN 13: 9780789462626

Publisher: Dk Pub, 2000

Synopsis

The illustrated companion to a three-part miniseries on TLC traces the origins and evolution of human beings, from the earliest prehistoric fossil record to the latest evidence based on genetic research. TV Tie-in. (A three-part TLC miniseries, airing August 6-8, 2000)

About this title

Review

Dawn of Man, which accompanies a BBC TV series, tells the story of human evolution, warts and all, over the last four million years or so. From a shared ancestor with the higher apes, an upright walking ape-human in Africa, McKie takes our story through the Ice Age to the domination by modern humans.

One of the few unique attributes of humans, which sets us apart from our nearest living relatives, the chimps, is a concern with our own history. Although anthropologists and archaeologists have conducted serious scientific investigation of our ancestry for well over 150 years, it is still a bit surprising how little we know.

The quest to discover our story is a bit like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle without a picture to tell us what the finished puzzle should look like. To further the metaphor, we also have no idea how many pieces there are altogether, and the few pieces we do have are mostly incomplete. Practically any new bit of evidence can change our idea of the overall picture, so the story of human evolution is constantly changing. As science editor for Britain's Observer newspaper, McKie is able to provide a very readable and up-to-date account of our remarkable story for the general reader.

One of the most compelling questions explored by McKie concerns our relationship with the Neanderthal people, who died out 30,000 years ago. Comparison of Neanderthal DNA with that of living humans suggests that our ancestors did not interbreed with the Neanderthals. Recently, however, skeletons have been found which seem to show a complete mixture of Neanderthal and modern human (Cro-Magnon) characters. In Dawn of Man, McKie quotes extensively from interviews with the scientists who work on human prehistory, so we get as close as possible to the bare bones of the story. The excellent text, art work, photos and graphics in Dawn of Man make it a capable standalone, very attractive for the general reader. --Douglas Palmer

Edition details

• Publisher: Dk Pub
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0789462621
• ISBN 13: 9780789462626
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 216