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An assessment of the many species of humans - all but one of them now extinct that have existed during the six-million-year-history of the hominid family. Scientists have long envisioned the human family tree as a straight-line progression from the apelike australopithecines to the enigmatic Homo habilis to the famous Neanderthals, culminating in us, Homo sapiens . But this model is unlike the evolutionary patterns known for all other vertebratespatterns that typically reveal multiple branchings and extinctions. In Extinct Humans , Ian Tattersall and Jeffrey Schwartz present convincing evidence that many distinct species of humans have existed during the history of the hominid family, often simultaneously. Furthermore, these species may have contributed to one anothers extinction. Who were these different human species? Which are direct ancestors to us? And, the most profound question o f all, why is there only a single human species alive on Earth now? 0813336759 the Last Neanderthal : the Rise, Success, and Mysterious Extinction of Our Closest Human Relatives

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9780813339184

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Ian Tattersall is Chairman and Curat or, Department of Anthropology, at the American Museum of Natural History and adjunct professor of a nthropology at Columbia University. His books include The Last Neanderthal , Becoming Human , and The Myths of Human Evolution (with Niles Eldredge). Jeffrey Schwartz is professor of physical anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh and a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. He is the author of The Red Ape , What Bones Tell Us , and Skeleton Keys .

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