The Human Lineage 1st Edition

The Human Lineage (Foundation of Human Biology)  begins by describing the first life forms and then traces development to the early apes to the various Australopithecus hominoids to the first Homo members to Neandertal Man and finishes at modern humans. The book thoughtfully considers opposing arguments of debated issues and intelligently recognizes that more discoveries and learning will continue in the future. The book strives to distinguish between primitive traits (plesiomorphies) and nonprimitive or derived traits (apomorphies) of organisms in order to determine shared derived traits or synapomorphies. On page 131, Figure 4.2 features drawings of the Taung skull and an infant chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) skull at a similar stage of dental development (first permanent molar erupted) with the chimp skull showing significant brow ridges and jaws projection, both of which the Taung skull lacks. On page 225, Figure 4.83 features drawings of basal views of skull OH 24, which has a more central foramen magnum, and skull Sts 5, which is an Australopithecus africanus young male that has its foramen magnum positioned toward the back of the cranial base. Page 335 highlights G.P. Rightmire's widely-accepted view that Homo heidelbergensis was the last common ancestor of modern humans and Neandertals along with twelve diagnostic features of the species. Page 374 highlights Allen's Rule, which states that "warm-blooded animals living in cold places tend to have relatively short limbs in order to decrease the body's surface-to-volume ratio and thus reduce heat loss", as a way of explaining Neandertals' short limbs, but Allen's Rule is refuted by mammoths, short-faced bears, American lions, and Homotherium big cats, all of which evolved the largest body sizes for their respective forms in cold weather and presumably went extinct from the loss of previously-abundant food sources in a warming climate. On page 382, Figure 7.26 features drawings of the femoral cross-sectional contours at midshaft for: (1) Habiline (KNM-ER 1481); (2) Erectine (Zhoukoudian 1); (3) Neandertal (La Chapelle-aux-Saints), which has a relatively broad midshaft; (4) early modern human (Paviland 1), which has a distinct pilaster (p); (5) recent modern human (Pecos Pueblo), which also has a distinct pilaster (p) and reduced cortical thickness; page 382 also features drawings of (A) the right femur of a recent human, and (B) the Neandertal femur from Spy 1 (Belgium), which has larger articular surfaces and a broader shaft with a proximal lateral femoral flange (FF). On page 386, Figure 7.28 shows in a graph pairwise comparisons of modern human-modern human, modern human-Neandertal, and Neandertal-chimpanzee (that is apparently mislabeled "human-chimpanzee" in the graph) mitochondrial DNA with "number of pairs" on the vertical axis and "number of differences" on the horizontal axis, indicating an average modern human-modern human difference of eight base pairs, an average modern human-Neandertal difference of twenty-seven base pairs, and an average Neandertal-chimpanzee difference of fifty-five base pairs.

The delivery time was amazing. I was surprised. The book was not quite as advertised, unless a good (hard) cover includes being dropped from a height and leaving a crinkled corner, and all pages are clean includes orange highlighting on around a dozen front pages, and common wear and tear in a bookstore environment includes highlighting some text (which doesn't seem right). Always risky when buying used products sight unseen, but overall I'm satisfied with my book, especially its speedy delivery.

The problem about technical text Kindle Editions it's the figures. They are out off text. You need to go backward and forward (annotate in a notebook the abreviations, etc.) to understand the text and to watch the figure; it's not good.The text is good and extensive. The approach in palaeobiology of our ancestors (begning with bacteria, fish, amphibians, etc.) is through; it is very good book.

This has a lot of good information but is not the best text book. Sometimes the paragraphs go on and on. I think it could be set up a better way to make it easier to read. The pictures are also strange. There are pictures of things where I wonder why are they just a drawing when they could show the actual photograph of the skull etc.

I had to purchase this book for one of my classes; some things in the book are a little hard to understand and some things are easy to understand. I think the book would have been better if it had a glossary at the back.

Relatively interesting and well organized. Needed it for class and the online version gets the job done!

My professor, Bill Kimbel, highly recommended this supplemental text for our Fossil Hominids class. I find the layout to be quite mindful, the organization to have solid flow, and the content to rise above expectations.

it is what it is...a ridiculously high priced new textbook....

very good depth of infromation

Das Buch ist deutlich umfangreicher und detaillierter als das von mir gewählte Vergleichswerk "Processes in Human Evolution". Der Schreibstil ist erfrischend locker, die Erklärungen sind sehr ausführlich. Während sich "Processes in Human Evolution" oft auf allgemeine, schwer nachvollziehbare Aussagen beschränkt (z.B. die Verbreiterung der Darmbeine verbessert die Stabilität des Rumpfes), nimmt sich "The Human Lineage" die Zeit, genau zu erläutern, wie anatomische Veränderungen die Funktion des Körpers verändern und warum das für unsere Vorfahren von Vorteil gewesen sein könnte.Die Kapitel (z.B. der Abschnitt zum "Neandertaler") beginnen mit einer (für meinen Gebrauch ausufernden) Darstellung aller Fossilienfunde und ihrer Interpretation durch verschiedenste Autoren. Dabei wird historisch chronologisch vorgegangen. Das führt dazu, dass man sich relativ lange mit "veralteten" oder weitgehend verworfenen Theorien beschäftigt, bevor man die modernen Ansichten erfährt. Die Funde sind teilweise anatomisch so unterschiedlich, oder die Interpretation so divergierend, dass ich beim Lesen der Kapitel zunächst häufig verwirrt war. Erst im Anschluss fassen die Autoren die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse aus der Analyse aller Fossilien zusammen. Für mich war es hilfreich, diese Zusammenfassungen VOR der ausführlichen Darstellung der zugrundeliegenden Fossilien zu lesen, da sich für mich so ein klareres Bild vom momentanen Kenntnisstand ergab.Fazit: Für den Einstieg in die Materie eignen sich besonders die Darstellungen der funktionellen Anatomie, die Beschreibung der Fossilienbefunde richtet an Personen, die schon eine grobe Vorstellung von der Evolutionslinie des Menschen haben und ihr Wissen erweitern wollen. Auch wenn der Laie manchmal etwas überfordert sein wird, ist es dennoch eine Freude, dieses ansprechend geschriebene und mit tollen Zeichnungen versehene Buch zu lesen.

I've received the book today. I am really grateful to BOOKWIN and AMAZON. At the moment, I am not in a position to review the book as I have not gone though the book. I was expecting a colourful book, however, I am a little disappointed seeing black and white pictures and diagrams.Thank you.RegardsRustam