The Humans Who Went Extinct
Price:
$29.95 (06)Description
Just 28,000 years ago, the blink of an eye in geological time, the last of Neanderthals died out in their last outpost, in caves near Gibraltar. Thanks to cartoons and folk accounts we have a distorted view of these other humans - for that is what they were. We think of them as crude and clumsy and not very bright, easily driven to extinction by the lithe, smart modern humans that came out of Africa some 100,000 years ago.But was it really as simple as that? Clive Finlayson reminds us that the Neanderthals were another kind of human, and their culture was not so very different from that of our own ancestors. In this book, he presents a wider view of the events that led to the migration of the moderns into Europe, what might have happened during the contact of the two populations, and what finally drove the Neanderthals to extinction. It is a view that considers climate, ecology, and migrations of populations, as well as culture and interaction.
His conclusion is that the destiny of the Neanderthals and the Moderns was sealed by ecological factors and contingencies. It was a matter of luck that we survived and spread while the Neanderthals dwindled and perished. Had the climate not changed in our favour some 50 million years ago, things would have been very different.
There is much current research interest in Neanderthals, much of it driven by attempts to map some of their DNA. But it's not just a question of studying the DNA. The rise and fall of populations is profoundly moulded by the larger scale forces of climate and ecology. And it is only by taking this wider view that we can fully understand the course of events that led to our survival and their demise. The fact that Neanderthals survived until virtually yesterday makes our relationship with them and their tragedy even more poignant. They almost made it, after all.
Features
- Neanderthals are fascinating and highly topical, and discoveries from remnants of their DNA or settlement sites frequently hit the news
- Will change many readers' perspectives by emphasizing that we were not the only kind of human around, until very recently
- Looks at Neanderthals and Moderns together, within a changing ecological landscape, rather than one or the other, as in recent books
- Has a fresh, ecological focus, looking at how scientists piece together clues about changing climate in the recent past, and how early peoples coped with it
- Tells the story leading up to Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel - ends where it begins
Reviews
"Finlayson does a superb job of describing the factors behind the expansion of the genus Homo and its diversification into various species, of which only Homo sapiens survives today. He also offers a powerful critique of those who theorize differently about the expansion of our species with very little data. In his hands, the links between climate and evolutionary change are stikingly clear."--Publishers Weekly
"A provocative new book." --Newsweek
Listed in Science Book News No. 178, 11/16/09
"Finlayson has written a fascinating new book...electrifying...an apocalyptic vision that puts a chill down one's back. But a book that makes you think remains one of the reasons to get up in the morning. Have a look at this one." --Dan Agin, The Huffington Post
"Here is a provocative work, which will not only teach, but leave readers wanting to learn more." --San Francisco Book Review
About the Author(s)
Clive Finlayson is a noted expert on the Neanderthals and has been researching their final stand in Gibraltar. He is Director of the Gibraltar Museum and Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto, having trained in Oxford as an evolutionary ecologist.
