Full name: The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors

Author: Ann Gibbons Year: 2006 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Science, Non Fiction, Anthology, History Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9781400076963 140007696X

In this dynamic account, award-winning science writer Ann Gibbons chronicles an extraordinary quest to answer the most primal of questions: When and where was the dawn of humankind?Following four intensely competitive international teams of scientists in a heated race to find the "missing link"-the fossil of the earliest human ancestor-Gibbons ventures to Africa, where she encounters a fascinating array of fossil hunters: Tim White, the irreverent Californian who discovered the partial skeleton of a primate that lived 4.4 million years ago in Ethiopia; French paleontologist Michel Brunet, who uncovers a skull in Chad that could date the beginnings of humankind to seven million years ago; and two other groups-one led by zoologist Meave Leakey, the other by British geologist Martin Pickford and his French paleontologist partner, Brigitte Senut-who enter the race with landmark discoveries of their own. Through scrupulous research and vivid first-person reporting, The First Human reveals the perils and the promises of fossil hunting on a grand competitive scale. Similar books: The Wisdom of the Bones by Alan Walker The Origin of Our Species by Chris Stringer Ancestors by Donald Johanson Lucy by Donald Johanson From Lucy To Language by Donald Johanson Bones of Contention by Roger Lewin The Last Human by G. J. Sawyer Lucy's Child by Donald Johanson Masters of the Planet by Ian Tattersall The Hominid Gang by Delta Willis The Origin of Humankind by Richard Leakey Origins Reconsidered by Richard Leakey The Neandertal Enigma by James Shreeve Out of Eden by Stephen Oppenheimer The Incredible Human Journey by Alice Roberts Before the Dawn by Nicholas Wade The Power of Babel by John McWhorter In Small Things Forgotten by James Deetz Breaking the Maya Code by Michael Coe Cannibals and Kings by Marvin Harris