The improbable primate: how water shaped human evolution

by Finlayson, Clive

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Title Statements

Full title :The improbable primate : how water shaped human evolution / Clive Finlayson.

Summary

In The Improbable Primate, Clive Finlayson takes an ecological approach to our evolution, considering the origins of modern humans within the context of a drying climate and changing landscapes. Finlayson argues that environmental change, particularly availability of water, played a critical role in shaping the direction of human evolution, contributing to our spread and success. He asserts that our ancestors carved a niche for themselves by leaving the forest and forcing their way into a long-established community of carnivores in a tropical savannah as climate changes opened up the landscape. They took their chance at high noon, when most other predators were asleep. Adapting to this new lifestyle by shedding their hair and developing an active sweating system to keep cool, being close to fresh water was vital. As the climate dried, our ancestors, already bipedal, became taller and slimmer, more adept at travelling farther in search of water. The challenges of seeking water in a drying landscape moulded the minds and bodies of early humans, and directed their migrations and eventual settlements.

Edition Statements

Publication Date:©2014

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):Oxford University Press
Place of Publication:Oxford
Language:eng
Publication Date:©2014

Notes

Originally published: 2014.

The Physical Object

Description:xix, 202 pages : : illustrations (black and white) ; : 20 cm

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:9780198743897, 0198743890, 9780199658794, 019965879X
oclc:ocn941070356
LC Classification:GN281 F55 2014
Dewey Decimal:569.98

The inverted panda -- And the world changed forever -- At the lake's edge -- The first humans -- Middle earth : the home of the first humans -- The drying world of the Middle Pleistocene -- The rain chasers : solutions in a drying world -- The exceptional world of the Neanderthal -- Global expansion of the rain chasers -- Australia -- From Lake Chad to Puritjarra and beyond.