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Lädt ... Missing Links: In Search of Human Origins (1981)von John Reader
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Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. Beautifully written. The book reads like an adventure story with science bits. Not overly simplified and not bogged down in scientific facts/terminology. Not confusing, which is surprising when you consider the convoluted nature of hominid evolution extrapolated on minimal fossil evidence. Excellent (and amusing) chapter on Piltdown Man. Well put-together, hard cover book, with thick, glossy pages and beautiful, full-page, colour photographs throughout. I liked this book a great deal more than Masters of the Planet by Ian Tattersal. A history of palaeoanthropology organized around a series of epochal fossil finds, starting with the original Neanderthal Man from Germany and ending with Ardipithecus ramidus from Ethiopia, with one chapter dedicated to the Piltdown Man hoax. It's not strictly chronological - the Neanderthal chapter, for example, deals with Neanderthal research down to the book's publication date - but by accident of discovery the overall trend is from younger to older fossils, as the early finds happened to be of relatively late species. Reader (who's a well-informed outsider rather than a palaeoanthropologist himself) carefully avoids taking sides in any active debate, rather stressing that the existence of debate suggests the inconclusiveness of the evidence. Active debate within the scientific community that is - creationists will not find any comfort in these pages. The picture of human evolution one comes away with is thus far hazier than popular press accounts that present one hypothesis as if the only one. One unavoidable impression from the story is that palaeoanthropology has and has had more than its fair share of big egos. Reader suggests that this is because consummate self-promoters have been the ones best placed to attract funding for their investigations. Mini-biographies of many of the major figures, such as Dubois and the Leakeys, are given. All in all an excellent read, my only complaint would be I'd want more of it - many subjects that are touched on could have been treated at greater length. It's already a weighty tome at 538 pages, mind! Zeige 3 von 3 keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
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This is the story of the search for human origins - from the Middle Ages, when questions of the earth's antiquity first began to arise, through to the latest genetic discoveries that show the interrelatedness of all living creatures.Central to the story is the part played by fossils - first, in establishing the age of the Earth; then, following Darwin, in the pursuit of possible "Missing Links" that would establish whether or not humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor.John Reader's passion for this quest - palaeoanthropology - began in the 1960s when he reported for Life Magazine on Richard Leakey's first fossil-hunting expedition to the badlands of East Turkana, in Kenya. Drawing on both historic and recent research, he tells the fascinating story of the scienceas it has developed from the activities of a few dedicated individuals, into the rigorous multidisciplinary work of today.His arresting photographs give a unique insight into the fossils, the discoverers, and the settings. His vivid narrative reveals both the context in which our ancestors evolved, and also the realities confronting the modern scientist. The story he tells is peopled by eccentrics and enthusiasts, andpunctuated by controversy and even fraud. It is a celebration of discoveries - Neanderthal Man in the 1850s, Java Man (1891), Australopithecus (1925), Peking Man (1926), Homo habilis (1964), Lucy (1978), Floresiensis (2004), and Ardipithecus (2009). It is a story of fragmentary shards of evidence,and the competing interpretations built upon them. And it is a tale of scientific breakthroughs - dating technology, genetics, and molecular biology - that have enabled us to set the fossil evidence in the context of human evolution.John Reader's first book on this subject (Missing Links: The Hunt for Earliest Man, 1981) was described in Nature as "the best popular account of palaeoanthropology I have ever read". His new book covers the thirty years of discovery that have followed. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)569.9Natural sciences and mathematics Fossils & prehistoric life Mammals HominidaeKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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Quibbles are few. The 1982 edition that I read free on archiv.org obviously does not cover some discoveries since then. You can catch up easily from Wikipedia and other sources, but you may not get the deeper background and personalities that you see in this book. There is a time line of hominid ancestry on the last pages; I would have preferred that the author also set out some of those dates here and there in the text along with epoch names. And I think dolomite is not a type of limestone.
This also is an account of how science is supposed to work: evidence-theory-more evidence-better theory and so on, always pursuing and approaching the truth; not just collecting facts. Of course personality and agenda (mostly reputation and funding) color the approach, particularly in the early phases or where evidence is slim. That is part of the interest of this book. In addition, the pursuit has the attraction of very challenging detective work. ( )