SuitabookHuman evolution
Robert Gardner
- Reading
- Read in short stretches, pausing to compare a chart or illustration with the section beside it; the book’s bibliography and index may help with returning to topics.
- Themes
- Evidence and changing accounts of human origins: The book explains ways to date fossils, how bones are judged to be ape or hominid, and how discoveries raise questions about human origins. Its treatment presents human origins as an evidence-based inquiry in which new finds can complicate existing accounts.
- Evolutionary theories: Early chapters describe Darwin’s and Lamarck’s theories of evolution alongside material on genetic structures, functions and mutations. The book presents this mainly as information or explanation.
- Worth knowing
- The book ranges across dating methods, genetics, fossil classification and named fossil discoveries; its detail may feel demanding to a reader looking for a brief overview.