Evolution The Human Story by Alice Roberts

Evolution The Human Story Reviews

• 
  Otherwyrld

  A large handsomely illustrated coffee table sized book, it still only merits 3 stars because it is difficult to see who it is intended for. It is not a children's book, despite being produced by Dorling Kindersley. It is not intended for experts as most of the book is taken up by illustration and there is very little text. It might be aimed at the interested amateur, but again the small snippets of information are not enough to do more than skim very briefly over the relevant facts. Nor is it designed to teach someone who knows nothing about the subject, as the few facts that are given tend to be at a level that requires at least some knowledge.
  
  The scope of the book is also a little odd - the first part covers human evolution from our most primitive ancestors, before going on to anthropology and finally archaeology. None of the three subject areas are covered in any real depth, and like most books about the subject are already out of date as new discoveries about human evolution are constantly being published.
  
  A lot of the book was devoted to producing "realistic" depictions of what some of our ancestors may have looked like. While they are technically accomplished, some of the facial expressions used are decidedly odd, and are quite off-putting in some cases.
  
  So, a nice book to skim through and certainly an attractive one, but little more than that.
• 
  Rama Rao

  Ancient history of humans
  
  Ancient relics such as fossils, stone tools, bones, footprints, genetic and hereditary information contained in DNA shed light on human ancestors. In few decades, a substantial amount of new evidence suggests origins and the demise of several closely related hominin species that lived in the last seven millions years. Modern humans are new kids on the block who are around for only about 200,000 years on a planet that created life 3.8 billion years ago. The palaeobiological and genetic studies have shown that the origins of modern human beings included interactions with other species like Neanderthals and Denisovans before they went extinct. Hominin species evolved in response to the numerous challenges of nature and selection pressures. Almost all species of hominin are now extinct except for Homo sapiens. Many of extinct species are now known from fossil remains, Homo Neanderthalensis (the Neanderthals), Denisovans, Homo Erectus, Homo Habilis, Homo Ergaster, and various species of Australopithecus. Hominins are distinguished from other primates from their erect posture, bipedal locomotion, larger brains, and behavioral characteristics such as specialized tool use and communication. The living primates most closely related to hominins today are Chimpanzees and Bonobos.
  
  This book is essentially a monograph of history and archaeology of hominin species, and it features numerous colored images of closely related species and the paleoenvironments that included many modern-day wild animals. Their adventures invite us to think about becoming a human species and speculate on the natural section pressures on gene evolution on several dimensions. The reconstructions of extinct hominin species from their anatomical and skeletal remains tell the evolutionary history.
  
  There is a lot to learn about how hominin species and their habitats. Next time, when you are in New York City and If you have time, I recommend visiting the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History and look at the exhibits. It features four life-sized tableaux of Homo Ergaster, Homo Erectus, Neanderthals, and Cro-Magnons in its natural habitat.
  
• 
  Joe Iacovino

  Yes, a nice addition to an existing collection of anthropology/ biology/ evo content, but should be an addition only. The book simply is not detailed enough to live up to the title; however, if one already has an understanding of evolution, then this book makes a great coffee table piece for talking points. The illustrations are very large and glossy with the feel of a photo-book, making up somewhat for the sparse content. Again, this book won't explain the concepts of evo all that well but is a nice piece if preaching to the choir. For an in-depth look at the details of evo I would recommend: Prothero - "What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters," OR Coyne, "Why Evolution is True." For a different overview also try Zimmer's,"Smithsonian Intimate Guide to Human Origins." (the pictures are not as large but the info is robust)
  
  Cheers.
• 
  Ann Keller

  Stunning book, filled with clear, concise language and marvelous drawings, paintings and illustrations to bring the dawn of man to life. Excellent for almost any age.
• 
  Sgds Front Desk

  This is not meant to be a textbook, nor should it be. This is a general overview of concepts and creatures the general public have no idea exist. And this is its purpose.
  Our gift shop sold this book for a year, and we use it almost daily in our discussions with patrons. The facial reconstructions, the fossil imagery, the creature stats, all of it comes together beautifully and clearly to teach the layman and casual scientist alike.
  Excellent book. I hope to see future editions as we discover more.
• 
  Dwi Ananta Putra

  I was so interested with everything related to the origin of our universe (e.g creation of earth, human evoluton, etc.) after fisnishing the Sapiens book. Then I found this book that gives a very good visualization about the history of earth and human evolution and civilization.
  
  I gave more attention on the vary of hominins until only our species left on earth, how our ancestor lived aside with other species of hominins.
  
  This book is special due to good visualization, explanation, and its full color is an added value.
• 
  Matt

  Ugh, I know, I know, I'm a massive nerd when it comes to the origin of humankind.
  My weird obsession lies with Neanderthals (I don't know why, but their enigmatic existence will always haunt me), but I love to see Human's best explanation of where we came from portrayed in such a beautiful light.
  The images are so thought-provoking and if this is just your interest you will be held captive by the portrayals of what was likely to be our ancestors.
  
  Informative, educational and awe-inspiring i pick this book and browse through it more often than my read-history on goodreads states.
  
  Brilliant read. Actually, I'm going to dip into it again now.
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  Thomas Cools

  Om eerlijk te zijn, ik heb dit boek niet uitgelezen. Dit is echt wat ze een "salonboek" noemen. Grote bladzijden met weinig tekst en veel mooie plaatjes. De teksten zijn niet bijzonder goed geschreven. Kromme zinnen en geen logische opbouw. Er wordt hier en daar ook tamelijk wat voorkennis gevraagd, wat gek is voor dit soort boeken. De foto’s zijn wel knap en geven een goed beeld van hoe onze voorouders er moeten hebben uitgezien. Als je je wil verdiepen in deze materie zou ik dit boek overslaan. Zit je in de lagere school en je moet een spreekbeurt maken voor de klas, dan is dit jouw boek!
• 
  Stella

  The facial reconstructions in this book are truly fantastic and fascinating. Worth picking up just to browse the pictures.
• 
  Zaynab

  i kind of wish this went into more detail with archaeological finding, methods etc. but its mainly just a book to flip through at a museum or coffee shop.
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  Karltheplaya

  Hjälpte mig i gymnasiearbete. Thank you monkey book, very cool!
• 
  Mehtap exotiquetv

  Die Evolution des Menschen wird anschaulich erklärt. Wie kann man mit Hilfe von Ausgrabungen die Entwicklung des Menschen dokumentieren und wie funktioniert das und welche Funktionen sind dafür notwendig. Von Gesteinen bis zum Fossilenfund wird die geschichtliche Entwicklung bis zum Homo Sapiens erklärt. Besonders interessant ist auch die Modellierung der einzelnen Entwicklungstypen und wie man vermutet, dass die Fossilenfunde in Wirklichkeit aussahen.
• 
  Judyta Szacillo

  Beautiful pictures and well-arranged material. It is an attractive summary of the current scientific knowledge of human evolution. Great introduction for beginners, and it could even help in convincing some anti-evolutionists, I think.
• 
  Regina Hunter

  I love skull/facial reconstruction I wish they would do it to all ancient and historic people so I knowhow they look. Statues and pictures are nice, but they lie.
• 
  Hulia

  كتاب يفتح النفس كله صور ورسومات توضيحية وآدلة وآحافير
  بدآ بتاريخ موجز للآرض بعدها التسلسل التطوري للإنسان بالتفصيل الممتع
• 
  Felicity Fields

  I picked this book up on a whim. It's definitely coffee-table size and design. Plenty of pictures and graphics tell the story; this is not dry words in a page.
  
  The middle part of the book dragged for me; describing each of the different species that led to Homo sapiens gets a bit repetitive. However, the part after that was my favorite: talking about how "modern" man migrated around the world. Good maps and diagrams here too.
  
  One thing I especially appreciated was the author pointing out areas of continuing debate, and also when a previously well-known, dominant theory had been updated or replaced with info from new discoveries.
• 
  Roger

  روند فرگشت گونه انسان را از نياكان خود بصورت بسيار مفيد و خلاصه و البته مستند، با تصاوير بسيا. با كيفيت و واضح نشان داده است
• 
  Kehali Abdelhak

  If only all book had illustration like this one !
  Love it
• 
  Sam Macharia

  Good summary. Quick and easy read with huge quality pictures and reconstructions. A must have if you are looking for a basic to intermediate level human evolution visual reference.
• 
  Vicky Ball

  Good mix of pictures and words. Good afternoons read.
• 
  sislasus

  Amazing illustrations. Just what I've been looking for.
• 
  Lynley

  The pictures were good.
• 
  John Atkins

  Professor Alice (Med Dr, Evolutionary Anthropologist, Television Presenter etc, etc) has put together an excellent, illustrated book on mankind’s drift from North East Africa to cover the whole planet. Anyone interested in the ascent of mankind should read this fascinating book.
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  Marilee

  This is an excellent over view of human paleo archeology and anthropology. I found this large and lavishly illustrated book has enough interesting text and science to pique interest and answer basic questions for laypersons, without getting bogged down in detail. Written in 2010, published in 2011, this is reasonably up to date. Frequent discoveries, new techniques and tools for interpretation, honest and heartfelt arguments over meanings read in bones… keep this a surprisingly dynamic field of inquiry.
  
  Mention is made of recent genome studies which suggest that modern man may share some Neanderthal blood, which could either mean modern man interbred with them, or just as possibly, that we shared a common ancestry. I was a little disappointed that only a paragraph was spent on
  Denovian hominids, but that human ancestry line, which may have been contemporary with Neanderthal's and early modern man is a fairly recent discovery. As I noted, this field of science is constantly being updated in response to discoveries and new techniques for interpretation, dating and reconstruction. It's mind boggling to realize that the DNA of Neanderthals has been isolated! Modern humans and Neanderthals were living on this planet at the same time, yet only we survived into the present. Why? Just another of the exciting questions yet unanswered.
  
• 
  Layth_soliman

  A beautiful yet informative work that summarizes a very difficult and complicated story into an easily digested and logical one.
  
  Thia work is meant to be an introduction to the story of the human evolution to the general reader , it is up to date and probably most of what you need to know.However, if you area heavy info chaser you'll have to read a couple of other books after this one.
  
  The journey in which Prof. Alice Roberts guides you here is concise , informative and very fun to read.
  
  Other than that this book is quite a piece of art! High quality pages with lots of stimulating images, reconstructed scenes of our ancestors distributed in their natural habitat,not to mention the many beautiful facial reconstruction of different hominid species.
  
  I highly recommend it, either to introduce your loved ones to the story of our evolution and honoring those who survived before us leading to us, or as a very good and beautiful source of quick review of that story whenever you need it.
  
  
• 
  J.P.

  It's not an in-depth book. It's more for people who are already informed about evolution & just want some background knowledge on the various hominids, including ancestors for us humans. Included is information about the skeletal structures & cultural habits of early hominids. It would make a great coffee table book just to glance over.