Alice Roberts has been travelling the world - from
Ethiopian desert to Malay peninsula and from Russian
steppes to Amazon basin - in order to understand the
challenges that early humans faced as they tried to
settle continents. On her travels she has witnessed some
of the daunting and brutal challenges our ancestors had
to face: mountains, deserts, oceans, changing climates,
terrifying giant beasts and volcanoes. But she discovers
that perhaps the most serious threat of all came from
other humans. When our ancestors set out from Africa
there were already two other species of human on the
planet: Neanderthal in Europe and Homo erectus in Asia.
Both (contrary to popular perception) were intelligent,
adept at making tools and weapons and were long adapted
to their environments. So, Alice asks, why did only Homo
sapiens survive? Part detective story, part travelogue,
and drawing on the latest genetic and archaeological
discoveries, Alice examines how our ancestors evolved
physically in response to these challenges, finding out
how our colour, shape, size, diet, disease resistance
and even athletic ability have been shaped by the range
of environments that our ancestors had to survive.She
also relates how astonishingly closely related we all
are. As a lecturer in Anatomy at Bristol University,
Alice Roberts is eminently qualified to write this book.
As a talented artist, she is perfectly qualified to
illustrate it, and dotted throughout this lively book
are many of the sketches and photographs from her
travels. |
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