You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
In the most revolutionary archaeological find of the new century, an international team of archaeologists led by Mike Morwood discovered a new, diminutive species of human on the remote Indonesian island of Flores. Nicknamed the “Hobbit,” this was no creation of Tolkien's fantasy. The three foot tall skeleton with a brain the size of a chimpanzee’s was a tool-using, fire-making, cooperatively hunting person who inhabited Flores alongside modern humans as recently as 13,000 years ago. This book is Morwood’s description of this monumental discovery and the intense study that has been undertaken to validate his view of its relationship to our species. He chronicles the bitter debates over Homo Floresiensis, the objections (some spiteful) of colleagues, the theft and damage of some of the specimens, and the endless battle against government and academic bureaucracies that hindered his research. This updated paperback edition contains an epilogue that reports on the most recent debates, findings, and analyses of this amazing discovery.
A modern-day Raiders of the Lost Ark -- the story of the discovery of an entirely new species of human. When in October 2004 the prestigious science publication Nature published the discovery of a 3-foot (1-metre) tall hominid skeleton, the world's press went wild. Hailed as one of the most important scientific discoveries for years, the 'Hobbit', as the adult female came to be known, entered the history books. But until now none of the members of the original archaeological team have told their story in book form. The Discovery of the Hobbit, written by the orchestrator of the dig, describes in vivid detail what the project was aiming to achieve, what it was like to stumble across such a fi...
Visions from the Past is a clear and comprehensive examination of Aboriginal rock art. It also provides a practical overview of precisely how and why archaeologist study prehistoric art.
This multidisciplinary book focuses on the relationships and interactions between palaeobiogeography, biogeography, dispersal, vicariance, migrations and evolution of organisms in the SE Asia-Australasian region. The book investigates biogeographic links between SE Asia and Australasia which go back more than 500 million years. It also focuses on the links between geological evolution and biological migrations and evolution in the region. It was in the SE Asian region that Alfred Russell Wallace established his biogeographic line, now known as Wallace's Line, which was the beginning of biogeography. Wallace also independently developed his theory of evolution based on his work in this area.;...
Two discoveries of early human relatives, one in 1924 and one in 2003, radically changed scientific thinking about our origins. Dean Falk, a pioneer in the field of human brain evolution, offers this fast-paced insider’s account of these discoveries, the behind-the-scenes politics embroiling the scientists who found and analyzed them, and the academic and religious controversies they generated. The first is the Taung child, a two-million-year-old skull from South Africa that led anatomist Raymond Dart to argue that this creature had walked upright and that Africa held the key to the fossil ancestry of our species. The second find consisted of the partial skeleton of a three-and-a-half-foot-tall woman, nicknamed Hobbit, from Flores Island, Indonesia. She is thought by scientists to belong to a new, recently extinct species of human, but her story is still unfolding. Falk, who has studied the brain casts of both Taung and Hobbit, reveals new evidence crucial to interpreting both discoveries and proposes surprising connections between this pair of extraordinary specimens.
Visions from the Past is a clear and comprehensive examination of Aboriginal rock art. It also provides a practical overview of precisely how and why archaeologist study prehistoric art.
The symbolic evidence found in rock art is virtually the only window into understanding the ideology, territoriality, resource use, and social organization of an ancient society." "More than 250 illustrations complement Morwood's in-depth analyses and reveal the beauty and richness of ancient Aboriginal culture."--BOOK JACKET.
Collecting the work of linguists, psychologists, neuroscientists, archaeologists, artificial intelligence researchers and philosophers this volume presents a richly varied picture of the nature and function of mental states. Starting from questions about the cognitive capacities of the early hominin homo floresiensis, the essays proceed to the role mental representations play in guiding the behaviour of simple organisms and robots, thence to the question of which features of its environment the human brain represents and the extent to which complex cognitive skills such as language acquisition and comprehension are impaired when the brain lacks certain important neural structures. Other papers explore topics ranging from nativism to the presumed constancy of categorization across signed and spoken languages, from the formal representation of metaphor, actions and vague language to philosophical questions about conceptual schemes and colours. Anyone interested in mental states will find much to reward them in this fine volume.
This series takes readers on a journey through the evolutionary history of humans.
Collects articles describing and discussing the mechanics of evolution, the speed and forms of adaptation, and the role humans, technology, and disease have played in evolution.