The Real Planet of the Apes
A New Story of Human Origins
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- 19,99 €
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- 19,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
The astonishing new story of human origins
Was Darwin wrong when he traced our origins to Africa? The Real Planet of the Apes makes the explosive claim that it was in Europe, not Africa, where apes evolved the most important hallmarks of our human lineage—such as dexterous hands and larger brains. In this compelling and accessible book, David Begun, one of the world's leading paleoanthropologists, transports readers to an epoch in the remote past when the Earth was home to many migratory populations of ape species.
Drawing on the latest astonishing discoveries in the fossil record as well as his own experiences conducting field expeditions across Europe and Asia, Begun provides a sweeping evolutionary history of great apes and humans. He tells the story of how one of the earliest members of our evolutionary group—a new kind of primate called Proconsul—evolved from lemur-like monkeys in the primeval forests of Africa. Begun vividly describes how, over the next 10 million years, these hominoids expanded into Europe and Asia and evolved climbing and hanging adaptations, longer maturation times, and larger brains, setting the stage for the emergence of humans. As the climate deteriorated in Europe around 10 million years ago, these apes either died out or migrated south, reinvading the African continent and giving rise to the lineages of the gorilla, chimpanzee, and, ultimately, the human.
Presenting startling new insights about our fossil ape ancestors, The Real Planet of the Apes is a book that fundamentally alters our understanding of human origins.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Begun, professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto, asks two large questions in this thought-provoking book: How did the planet go "from dozens of ape species at any one time, hundreds in all over the millennia, to just a few today"? And what are the characteristics of the common ancestor that chimpanzees and humans shared with one another approximately seven million years ago? Along the way to finding answers, Begun explains the reasoning and data that scientists use to discern evolutionary relationships among long-extinct species, describes the excitement that comes from making a new discovery, and demonstrates how interpretive differences between scientists can be productive and nonconfrontational. The book also contains a wealth of information about the comparative anatomy of humans and other apes. Begun's overarching goal is to promote his hypothesis that the ancestor of the African apes and humans may actually have evolved in Europe instead of Africa. He builds a strong case for this not-yet-mainstream idea while making it abundantly clear that he is open to data that would prove him wrong. Begun's passion is evident in both his writing and his science, but the important details of his work are likely to be overwhelming to all but the most dedicated students of anthropology.
