Author: Clive Finlayson Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA ISBN: 019965879X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 223
Book Description
In The Improbable Primate, Clive Finlayson gives a provocative view of human evolution, arguing that the critical factor that shaped us was water. Questioning current accounts of tools and our spread from Africa, he presents an ecological viewpoint.
Author: Alan de Queiroz Publisher: Basic Books ISBN: 0465069762 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 370
Book Description
Throughout the world, closely related species are found on landmasses separated by wide stretches of ocean. What explains these far-flung distributions? Why are such species found where they are across the Earth? Since the discovery of plate tectonics, scientists have conjectured that plants and animals were scattered over the globe by riding pieces of ancient supercontinents as they broke up. In the past decade, however, that theory has foundered, as the genomic revolution has made reams of new data available. And the data has revealed an extraordinary, stranger-than-fiction story that has sparked a scientific upheaval. In The Monkey's Voyage, biologist Alan de Queiroz describes the radical new view of how fragmented distributions came into being: frogs and mammals rode on rafts and icebergs, tiny spiders drifted on storm winds, and plant seeds were carried in the plumage of sea-going birds to create the map of life we see today. In other words, these organisms were not simply constrained by continental fate; they were the makers of their own geographic destiny. And as de Queiroz shows, the effects of oceanic dispersal have been crucial in generating the diversity of life on Earth, from monkeys and guinea pigs in South America to beech trees and kiwi birds in New Zealand. By toppling the idea that the slow process of continental drift is the main force behind the odd distributions of organisms, this theory highlights the dynamic and unpredictable nature of the history of life. In the tradition of John McPhee's Basin and Range, The Monkey's Voyage is a beautifully told narrative that strikingly reveals the importance of contingency in history and the nature of scientific discovery.
Author: Carl Hiaasen Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard ISBN: 0385350074 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 337
Book Description
Coming as an Apple Original series from Ted Lasso Executive Producer Bill Lawrence and starring Vince Vaughn • A wickedly funny novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Squeeze Me in which the greedy, the corrupt, and the degraders of what’s left of pristine Florida—now, of the Bahamas as well—get their comeuppance. “[A] comedic marvel … [Hiaasen] hasn’t written a novel this funny since Skinny Dip.”—The New York Times Andrew Yancy—late of the Miami Police and soon-to-be-late of the Monroe County sheriff’s office—has a human arm in his freezer. There’s a logical (Hiaasenian) explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its shadowy owner. Yancy thinks the boating-accident/shark-luncheon explanation is full of holes, and if he can prove murder, the sheriff might rescue him from his grisly Health Inspector gig (it’s not called the roach patrol for nothing). But first—this being Hiaasen country—Yancy must negotiate an obstacle course of wildly unpredictable events with a crew of even more wildly unpredictable characters, including his just-ex lover, a hot-blooded fugitive from Kansas; the twitchy widow of the frozen arm; two avariciously optimistic real-estate speculators; the Bahamian voodoo witch known as the Dragon Queen, whose suitors are blinded unto death by her peculiar charms; Yancy’s new true love, a kinky coroner; and the eponymous bad monkey, who with hilarious aplomb earns his place among Carl Hiaasen’s greatest characters.
Author: Roderick Sprague Publisher: Northwest Anthropology ISBN: Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 133
Book Description
Diet 123: A Computerized Dietary Analysis Program Using Lotus 123TM - Nicolette I. Teufel and George J. Teufel The Cultural Ecology of Hunting and Potlatches Among the Lillooet Indians - Steven Romanoff Abstracts of Papers, 40th Annual Northwest Anthropological Conference Jargonization Before Chinook Jargon - William J. Samarin Improbable Species, Deceit, and Social Control in the Context of Behavioral Ecology - Richard Beeson Protecting American Indian Sacred Geography - Deward E. Walker, Jr.
Author: Clive Finlayson Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0192518119 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 287
Book Description
Since the late 1980s the dominant theory of human origins has been that a 'cognitive revolution' (C.50,000 years ago) led to the advent of our species, Homo sapiens. As a result of this revolution our species spread and eventually replaced all existing archaic Homo species, ultimately leading to the superiority of modern humans. Or so we thought. As Clive Finlayson explains, the latest advances in genetics prove that there was significant interbreeding between Modern Humans and the Neanderthals. All non-Africans today carry some Neanderthal genes. We have also discovered aspects of Neanderthal behaviour that indicate that they were not cognitively inferior to modern humans, as we once thought, and in fact had their own rituals and art. Finlayson, who is at the forefront of this research, recounts the discoveries of his team, providing evidence that Neanderthals caught birds of prey, and used their feathers for symbolic purposes. There is also evidence that Neanderthals practised other forms of art, as the recently discovered engravings in Gorham's Cave Gibraltar indicate. Linking all the recent evidence, The Smart Neanderthal casts a new light on the Neanderthals and the 'Cognitive Revolution'. Finlayson argues that there was no revolution and, instead, modern behaviour arose gradually and independently among different populations of Modern Humans and Neanderthals. Some practices were even adopted by Modern Humans from the Neanderthals. Finlayson overturns classic narratives of human origins, and raises important questions about who we really are.
Author: Kari Noel Publisher: Gray Duck Creative Works ISBN: 1647720303 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 48
Book Description
Ten mystery primates put themselves out there in this book. They show their most flattering and unflattering features. For example, one points out its pretty red hair while another one calls attention to its big nose. Each primate hopes to be known by young readers.
Author: Mark Maslin Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0198704526 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 257
Book Description
One of the fundamental questions of our existence is why we are so smart. There are lots of drawbacks to having a large brain, including the huge food intake needed to keep the organ running, the frequency with which it goes wrong, and our very high infant and mother mortality rates compared with other mammals, due to the difficulty of giving birth to offspring with very large heads. So why did evolution favour the brainy ape? This question has been widely debated among biological anthropologists, and in recent years, Maslin and his colleagues have pioneered a new theory that might just be the answer. Looking back to a crucial period some 1.9 million years ago, when brain capacity increased by as much as 80%, The Cradle of Humanity explores the implications of two adaptive responses by our hominin ancestors to rapid climatic changes - big jaws, and big brains. Maslin argues that the impact of changing landscapes and fluctuating climates that led to the appearance of intermittent freshwater lakes in East Africa may have played a key role in human evolution. Alongside the physical evidence of fossils and tools, he considers social theories of why a large, complex brain would have provided a major advantage when trying to survive in the constantly changing East African landscape.
Author: Peter Andrews Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1316412164 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 331
Book Description
Our closest living relatives are the chimpanzee and bonobo. We share many characteristics with them, but our lineages diverged millions of years ago. Who in fact was our last common ancestor? Bringing together ecology, evolution, genetics, anatomy and geology, this book provides a new perspective on human evolution. What can fossil apes tell us about the origins of human evolution? Did the last common ancestor of apes and humans live in trees or on the ground? What did it eat, and how did it survive in a world full of large predators? Did it look anything like living apes? Andrews addresses these questions and more to reconstruct the common ancestor and its habitat. Synthesising thirty-five years of work on both ancient environments and fossil and modern ape anatomy, this book provides unique new insights into the evolutionary processes that led to the origins of the human lineage.
Author: Liam Fox Publisher: Biteback Publishing ISBN: 178590888X Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 263
Book Description
Following Russia's aggressive war in Ukraine, the world is suddenly gripped by concerns over energy security. And yet, there is an even greater threat ahead – one that is much more likely to shape the events of the twenty-first century than the competition for oil or gas. The combination of an ever-increasing global population, climate change, industrialisation, urbanisation and limited natural resources means that one difficulty, above all, will shape the political, economic and security environment in the years ahead: that is water. If people and nations will fight for fossil fuels, it is nothing compared to what they will do for the most vital natural resource of all. As both a citizen who has supported water charities and worked in the NHS and a politician who has dealt with security and economic issues, Liam Fox tells the story of water and the problems it presents in a more complete way than ever before. The Coming Storm unites a range of concerns that are often written about separately but seldom together and provides a comprehensible and compelling call for urgent action.
Author: Patrice Adret Publisher: Frontiers Media SA ISBN: 2832536816 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 201
Book Description
Mammalian vocal duets and turn-taking exchanges — long, coordinated acoustic signals exchanged between two individuals— are primarily found in family-living, pair-bonded mammals with a socially monogamous lifestyle (some rodents, some lemurs, tarsiers, titi monkeys, a Mentawai langur, gibbons and siamangs). Duetting and turn-taking patterns combine visual, chemical, tactile and auditory cues to produce some of the most exuberant displays in the realm of animal communication. How and why such phenotypes evolved independently across main lineages are fundamental questions at the core of the nature-nurture debate. Duetting styles ranging from antiphonal (non-overlapping) to simultaneous (overlapping) emissions have now been documented in various taxa, some of which are quite reminiscent of turn-taking rules in human conversation. Nonetheless, much remains to be learned about this complex motor skill, and at all four levels of analysis, namely (1) developmental processes, (2) causal mechanisms (3) functional properties and (4) evolutionary history. Given the strong link between this form of coordinated singing and pair-bonding, gaining a deeper understanding of this kind of cooperative behavior will likely shed more light on the deep evolutionary roots of human culture, language and music.
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Author: Clive Finlayson
Author: Alan de Queiroz
Author: Carl Hiaasen
Author: Roderick Sprague
Author: Clive Finlayson
Author: Kari Noel
Author: Mark Maslin
Author: Peter Andrews
Author: Liam Fox
Author: Patrice Adret