Lone Survivors

November 14, 2011
How did modern humans beat out Neanderthals, Homo erectus, and other early humans to become the only people on Earth? That’s the big question paleoanthropologist Stringer (The Complete World of Human Evolution) probes in this scholarly yet accessible survey of contemporary knowledge about human evolution. Some other questions: How did humans and Neanderthals interact? What forces produced our modern genes and behavior? Stringer explores these along with the major trends in human evolutionary theory since Darwin’s time, following the pendulum of scientific opinion as it swings from multiregionalism—the idea that humans evolved through various phases around the globe, with no place serving as a particular origin—to recent African origin theory, and back. Though a prominent out of Africa proponent, Stringer refines his earlier ideas, still focusing on an African beginning, but investigating the possibility that humans interbred with Neanderthals and other ancient humans. The book digs into fossil finds, advanced dating methods, and genetic tools, and shows how experts can deduce so much about our millennia-dead ancestors. Yet, as Stringer reminds us, even experts have only managed to obtain a small part of the picture. More than anything, the book impresses us with how much we still have to learn about our roots. Agent: John and Max Brockman, Brockman Inc.

February 1, 2012
Not an overall history of human evolution but the story of the last million years, which began with three or four Homo species roaming the world but ended about 30,000 years ago with the disappearance of all but one. British paleoanthropologist Stringer (Homo Britannicus, 2006, etc.) points out that most scientists agree that our first hominid ancestors appeared in Africa 5 million years ago; many species evolved, and a few wandered north about 2 million years ago. Where Homo sapiens originated and how it came out on top remains a matter of intense debate, but Stringer marshals the latest evidence and concludes that his own opinion is correct: Modern humans appeared in a small area of Africa about 200,000 years ago and then moved across the world exchanging genes, tools and behavior with rival human species before supplanting them. Besides trying to make sense of headline-producing fossil and archeological discoveries, the author explains dazzling advances that have solved many problems: precise techniques for dating, DNA studies (we have the complete Neanderthal genome), isotope analysis to determine an ancient species' diet and travels, CT scans to reveal hidden and even microscopic details and geometric morphometrics and stereolithography to re-create, manipulate and compare skulls and other structures. The book's title remains a subject of controversy, but readers seeking to advance beyond the usual flamboyant field researchers will enjoy this intense, detailed account of what the world's anthropologists are doing, thinking and quarreling about.

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October 15, 2011

Famed paleoanthropologist Stringer once challenged multiregionalists (who argue that modern humans developed from ancient ancestors in different parts of the world) by proposing that humans emerged rapidly in one part of Africa and then went forth to replace all other hominid species. Now he challenges himself, using new evidence to proclaim that distinct humans coexisted, competed, and even interbred throughout the African continent. What's more exciting than where we came from?

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2012
Paleoanthropologists, Stringer prominent among them, debate models of the beginnings of Homo sapiens that roughly fall into two categories: one proposes a distinct beginning in Africa and subsequent radiation around the world, and a second holds that the human species arose in several regions. In this overview of fossil and genetic evidence developed over the past three decades, Stringer recounts scientific details that favor one camp or another, explaining, along the way, the evolution of his views on which has the better argument. A major factor discussed is improved dating methods, with Stringer meshing the imputed ages of fossils and artifacts with comparative anatomy to track the geographical locations of four species classified in the Homo genus: sapiens, neanderthalensis, heidelbergensis, and erectus. Asking questions about when one line split from another, and about the mental experiences and social behaviors of archaic humans that presaged those of their modern descendants, Stringer plays to popular interest in, for example, the extinction of the Neanderthals. A readable refraction of scholarship, Stringer's knowledgeable presentation reveals the points at issue in the science of human origins.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)