Neanderthals and modern humans : an ecological and evolutionary perspective / Clive Finlayson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Finlayson, Clive, 1955- author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in biological and evolutionary anthropology ; 38.

Cambridge studies in biological and evolutionary anthropology ; 38

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Neanderthals.

Human evolution.

Social evolution.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 255 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Neanderthals & Modern Humans

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Neanderthals and Modern Humans develops the theme of the close relationship between climate change, ecological change and biogeographical patterns in humans during the Pleistocene. In particular, it challenges the view that Modern Human 'superiority' caused the extinction of the Neanderthals between 40 and 30 thousand years ago. Clive Finlayson shows that to understand human evolution, the spread of humankind across the world and the extinction of archaic populations, we must move away from a purely theoretical evolutionary ecology base and realise the importance of wider biogeographic patterns including the role of tropical and temperate refugia. His proposal is that Neanderthals became extinct because their world changed faster than they could cope with, and that their relationship with the arriving Modern Humans, where they met, was subtle.

Contents:

Human evolution in the Pleistocene

Biogeographical patterns

Human range expansions, contractions and extinctions

The modern human : Neanderthal problem

Comparative behaviour and ecology of Neanderthals and modern humans

The conditions in Africa and Eurasia during the last glacial cycle

The modern human colonisation and the Neanderthal extinction

The survival of the weakest.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-247) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-14554-6

1-280-44938-1

0-511-18547-2

0-511-18464-6

0-511-18727-0

0-511-31344-6

0-511-54237-2

0-511-18634-7

OCLC:

171138443