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A Pocket History of Human Evolution: How We Became Sapiens
A Pocket History of Human Evolution: How We Became Sapiens
A Pocket History of Human Evolution: How We Became Sapiens
Audiobook3 hours

A Pocket History of Human Evolution: How We Became Sapiens

Written by Silvana Condemi and Francois Savatier

Narrated by Christa Lewis

4.5/5

()

About this audiobook

Why aren't we more like other apes? How did we win the evolutionary race? Find out how "wise" Homo sapiens really are.

Prehistory has never been more exciting: New discoveries are overturning long-held theories left and right. Stone tools in Australia date back 65,000 years —a time when, we once thought, the first Sapiens had barely left Africa. DNA sequencing has unearthed a new hominid group — the Denisovans — and confirmed that crossbreeding with them (and Neanderthals) made Homo sapiens who we are today.

A Pocket History of Human Evolution brings us up-to-date on the exploits of all our ancient relatives. Paleoanthropologist Silvana Condemi and science journalist François Savatier consider what accelerated our evolution: Was it tools, our "large" brains, language, empathy, or something else entirely? And why are we the sole survivors among many early bipedal humans? Their conclusions reveal the various ways ancient humans live on today — from gossip as modern "grooming" to our gendered division of labor — and what the future might hold for our strange and unique species.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherTantor Audio
Release dateOct 29, 2019
ISBN9781515944027
A Pocket History of Human Evolution: How We Became Sapiens
Author

Silvana Condemi

Silvana Condemi, a paleoanthropologist, is the research director of the National Center for Scientific Research, the largest public scientific research organization in France, at Aix-Marseille University. She previously coauthored the award-winning Neanderthal, My Brother.

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Reviews for A Pocket History of Human Evolution

4.5/5

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  • 5/5
    One of the best audio books I have read to learn about human history supported with anecdotes and science
  • 5/5
    A very good summarized information about human evolution, our history! Thanks to the author and the narrator.
  • 5/5
    Excellent book, well narrated and written. Recommended for those who want a quick review with everything laid out nicely for you.
  • 3/5
    Short overview of our branch of the evolutionary tree, about how and when things like upright walking, throwing strength, language, and brain size developed and then influenced further developments.
  • 4/5
    This is, as it says on the cover, a pocket history of human evolution. It's clear, concise, informative, covers enough detail to be useful--including some interesting material I hadn't caught up with previously.The authors are a paleoanthropologist (Condemi), and a science journalist (Savatier), and this is an excellent, accessible overview of what we know about our ancestors. How did our lineage emerge from the many closely related bipedal species to become the only surviving member of genus homo? The only fully bipedal ape? A species able to adapt to every continent (including, marginally, Antarctica), and make major alterations to the planet?You may gain a new appreciation of the human foot. I was fascinated by the information that human populations were interacting and interbreeding across most of Africa, not just East Africa, fairly early in Sapiens development, expanding out of Africa as well as descendants of earlier out-migrants migrating back to Africa, and possibly at some point cross-breeding with Homo erectus.Humans apparently will mate with anything that looks about right.There's also a strong emphasis on the importance of cultural evolution, with language and the sharing of new inventions and ideas playing a large role in our rise to unlikely dominance.It's informative, fascinating, and enjoyable. Recommended.I bought this audiobook.