In The Fossil Trail , Ian Tattersall, the head of the Anthropology Department at the American Museum of Natural History, takes us on a sweeping tour of the study of human evolution, offering a colorful history of fossil discoveries and a revealing insider's look at how these finds have been interpreted--and misinterpreted--through time. All the major figures and discoveries are here, from Lamarck and Darwin right up to modern theorists such as Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould. Tattersall describes Dubois's work in Java ...
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In The Fossil Trail , Ian Tattersall, the head of the Anthropology Department at the American Museum of Natural History, takes us on a sweeping tour of the study of human evolution, offering a colorful history of fossil discoveries and a revealing insider's look at how these finds have been interpreted--and misinterpreted--through time. All the major figures and discoveries are here, from Lamarck and Darwin right up to modern theorists such as Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould. Tattersall describes Dubois's work in Java, the many discoveries in South Africa by pioneers such as Raymond Dart and Robert Broom, and Don Johanson's famous discovery of "Lucy." He discusses the many techniques available to explore the evolutionary record, from fluorine analysis and radiocarbon dating to such modern techniques as electron spin resonance and the analysis of human mitochondrial DNA. He gives us a succinct picture of what we presently think our "family tree" looks like, paints a vivid, insider's portrait of paleoanthropology, and, perhaps most importantly, Tattersall looks at all these great researchers and discoveries within the context of their social and scientific milieu, to reveal the insidious ways that the received wisdom can shape how we interpret fossil findings, and how what we expect to find colors our understanding of what we do find. Colorfully narrated and well-illustrated, The Fossil Trail is the only book available to general readers that offers a full history of our study of human evolution.
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Add this copy of The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know to cart. $115.95, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2008 by Oxford University Press.
