Beautifully Diagramed/Ilustrated | The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans

Meet the family... | The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans | G. J. Sawyer, Viktor Deak, ...

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	• The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans G. J. Sawyer, Viktor Deak, ... Yale University Press, 2007 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Interpreting facial details in reconstructions

This is a marvelous book and I will not give it fewer than 5 stars, despite my small criticism of it, which is that many of the reconstructions seem to closely resemble chimpanzees or gorillas until we get to the genus Homo when, voila!, they start to resemble people. For example, take a look at Paranthopus boisei on page 137. I don't doubt that the soft tissues were correctly placed. But what do you suppose this reconstruction would look like if the builders had gone to the other extreme and made it look more like Jack Palance instead of like a gorilla? Yes, it has a short face etc, not the extreme prognathism of a gorilla. There are two extremes in making reconstructions such as these---making them look human, or making them look like apes and P. boisei looks like something a gorilla could love. No one knows the actual state of affairs in these creatures from several million years ago. That's why these reconstructions are essentially artistic opinions (assuming the underlying meat is correctly placed). But why make most of them look so very apelike? An interesting digression on such reconstructions might be to make 3 versions, one looking deliberately apelike, one deliberately human-like, and one sort of a grand average. So what would P. boisei look like if his builders had tried to groom him so that he could ride the subway without causing phones to ring at the zoo? We will never know as long as he keeps getting dressed up like a gorilla. Maybe less facial hair is all that would be needed. And it would have been nice to see more of these reconstructions from different angles besides just the one that was provided in most instances.

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Beautifully Diagramed/Ilustrated

The illustrations/re-creations from the skeletons along with the time line is the best done I've ever seen and kept me fascinated.

Writing is excellent and challenging.

Meet the family...

This is a great book to have at home, one to read on the couch while drinking tea and listening to the rain outside the windows. With short stories and real photos to try to help us picture and understand those early humans who use to roam the surface of Earth. Hairy, scarred, scared and yet intelligent, emotional, the start of us, this book tries to help us understand them without going off into a fictional fantasy world. The book deals with diet, tools, and habitat with some guesses at behavior. Great for a coffee table book or a nice gift for almost any age. Or just get it for yourself.

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One of many.

Discussions surrounding human origins have become increasingly complicated, but this book provides a useful means of looking at the variability that paleoanthropologists are finding in the fossil record. This doesn't mean that every word or species assignment is without debate, but it is a useful tool for looking at the variety of species that either share deep ancestry or are direct ancestors of modern human beings.

We aren't sure of anything

I can totally understand why we don't have too much factual information about time periods that are so long ago; but the evidence for these Species is so limited, we can't draw any conclusions. A lot of the time even the existence of the species is still being debated. I'm writing my review about 160 pages in, out of 250 and its been slow, technical reading. About the shape and size of teeth, the location of where the bones where found, etc. No fun stuff so far, we really don't much about anything that happened back then. The last chapter or two look interesting, let's hope so. If you like reading about ancient times, pick up a book on prehistoric art, or something like that.

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This book tells the story of human evolution, the epic of Homo sapiens and its colorful precursors and relatives. The story begins in Africa, six to seven million years ago, and encompasses twenty known human species, of which Homo sapiens is the sole survivor. Illustrated with spectacular, three-dimensional scientific reconstructions portrayed in their natural habitat developed by a team of physical anthropologists at the American Museum of Natural History and in concert with experts from around the world, the book is both a guide to extinct human species and an astonishing hominid family photo album.
The Last Human presents a comprehensive account of each species with information on its emergence, chronology, geographic range, classification, physiology, lifestyle, habitat, environment, cultural achievements, co-existing species, and possible reasons for extinction. Also included are summaries of fossil discoveries, controversies, and publications. What emerges from the fossil story is a new understanding of Homo sapiens. No longer credible is the notion that our species is the end product of a single lineage, improved over generations by natural selection. Rather, the fossil record shows, we are a species with widely varied precursors, and our family tree is characterized by many branchings and repeated extinctions.
Exhibition information:
Photographs of most of the reconstructions that appear in this book will be featured in exhibits appearing in the new Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The opening of the Hall is planned for November 2006.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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