The hunt for the dawn monkey : unearthing the origins of monkeys, apes, and humans / Chris Beard ; illustrations by Mark Klingler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beard, K. Christopher.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Primates, Fossil.

Monkeys, Fossil.

Fossil hominids.

Human beings--Origin.

Human beings.

Paleoanthropology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (366 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Taking us back roughly 45 million years into the Eocene, "the dawn of recent life," Chris Beard, a world-renowned expert on the primate fossil record, offers a tantalizing new perspective on our deepest evolutionary roots. In a fast-paced narrative full of vivid stories from the field, he reconstructs our extended family tree, showing that the first anthropoids-the diverse and successful group that includes monkeys, apes, and humans-evolved millions of years earlier than was previously suspected and emerged in Asia rather than Africa. In The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey, Beard chronicles the saga of two centuries of scientific exploration in search of anthropoid origins, from the early work of Georges Cuvier, the father of paleontology, to the latest discoveries in Asia, Africa, and North America's Rocky Mountains. Against this historical backdrop, he weaves the story of how his own expeditions have unearthed crucial fossils-including the controversial primate Eosimias-that support his compelling new vision of anthropoid evolution. The only book written for a wide audience that explores this remote phase of our own evolutionary history, The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey adds a fascinating new chapter to our understanding of humanity's relationship to the rest of life on earth.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Preface

1. Missing Links and Dawn Monkeys

2. Toward Egypt's Sacred Bull

3. A Gem from the Willwood

4. The Forest in the Sahara

5. Received Wisdom

6. The Birth of a Ghost Lineage

7. Initial Hints from Deep Time

8. Ghost Busters

9. Resurrecting the Ghost

10. Into the African Melting Pot

11. Paleoanthropology and Pithecophobia

Notes

References Cited

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 313-329) and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9786612358722

9781282358720

1282358723

9781417584949

1417584947

9780520940253

0520940253

9781597349390

1597349399

OCLC:

58728507