THE IMPROBABLE PRIMATE.
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| Title: | THE IMPROBABLE PRIMATE. |
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| Authors: | BRANDON ROBSHAW |
| Source: | Independent (UK). 01/31/2016. |
| Abstract: | Clive Finlayson traces human evolution over the past 1.8 million years in this wonder-inspiring book. In Finlayson's view, there were no separate species of humans, rather one "polytypic" species, which developed in different ways according to habitat and climate. There was no single "out-of-Africa" moment, rather a series of gradual migrations as our ancestors left the forest world and ventured into the savannah and beyond. In particular we were driven by our need for water, settling by it in wetland paradises, moving in search of it when habitats became arid. Such movements shaped our evolution; longer legs and bigger brains paid off. Finlayson writes in a dry, clear, scholarly style which somehow accentuates the sheer improbability of humanity's long journey. His final reflection is that the landscape humans were able to thrive in always involved water, trees and open spaces - exactly the environment created in modern-day parks which city-dwellers jog through, unconscious that they are re-living life in the ancestral habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] |
| Database: | Newspaper Source Plus |
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| Abstract: | Clive Finlayson traces human evolution over the past 1.8 million years in this wonder-inspiring book. In Finlayson's view, there were no separate species of humans, rather one "polytypic" species, which developed in different ways according to habitat and climate. There was no single "out-of-Africa" moment, rather a series of gradual migrations as our ancestors left the forest world and ventured into the savannah and beyond. In particular we were driven by our need for water, settling by it in wetland paradises, moving in search of it when habitats became arid. Such movements shaped our evolution; longer legs and bigger brains paid off. Finlayson writes in a dry, clear, scholarly style which somehow accentuates the sheer improbability of humanity's long journey. His final reflection is that the landscape humans were able to thrive in always involved water, trees and open spaces - exactly the environment created in modern-day parks which city-dwellers jog through, unconscious that they are re-living life in the ancestral habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] |
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