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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Intended as a companion volume to the newly opened Hall of Human Biology and Evolution at the American Museum of Natural History, this book stands well alone. Opening chapters survey life's diversity, highlight human biological systems, and define the place of humankind within the animal kingdom. Upon this foundation, Tattersall--a noted anthropologist and a curator at the museum--interweaves information on fossil finds, artifacts, climate, geology, biology, and sociology to create a vivid depiction of the evolution of primates into Homo sapiens. Current mainstream opinions, alternate views, and earlier theories are explained in a well-balanced fashion. The addition of top-quality photos, maps, charts, and artist's reconstructions makes for an inviting package accessible to both young adult and lay readers. The result is similar in scope and quality to Roger Lewin's In the Age of Mankind: A Smithsonian Book of Human Evolution ( LJ 12/88). Highly recommended for general collections.
- Frank Reiser, Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description
This newly updated edition chronicles the history of human evolution from the simplest forms of life to the rise of modern humankind. Three and a half million years ago, two upright figures walked together across the Laetoli desert in Tanzania, their footsteps captured forever in volcanic ash. Were these remarkable footprints made by one of our earliest ancestors, and what can they tell us about the human evolutionary journey?

This is just one of the puzzles of the compelling story of human evolution explored in this volume. Based on the Hall of Human Biology and Evolution at the American Museum of Natural History—the most extensive exhibition of the subject ever designed—The Human Odyssey examines how both significant fossil finds and startling new theories have been used by scientists to trace the path of human evolution.

Here are the stories behind such famous fossil discoveries as Gigantopithecus, the "Black Skull," "Java Man," and "Lucy," and the surprising clues they reveal about the date and place of human origins. Here too are the bold theories and controversies that have influenced the field of evolution, from the idea of natural selection put forth by Charles Darwin to the new role that DNA analysis plays in fossil research.

Illustrated throughout with more than a hundred photographs, drawings, maps, and stunning artistic re-creations of early humans and their environment, The Human Odyssey is virtually a portable museum devoted to the fascinating subject of human evolution. Drawing from the latest research in both the laboratory and the field, it clearly illuminates some of the most provocative questions scientists have ever asked: Where did we come from, and how did we become what we are today?

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