Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction

• The most up-to-date introduction to the subject available, includes Homo floresiensis (nick-named 'the Hobbit')
• Explains where modern humans fit in the Tree of Life
• Connects the fossil evidence with the genetic evidence
• Wood provides an 'insiders view' of paleoanthropology, explaining how fossils are found, analyzed, and why they are interpreted in different ways
• Includes lively sketches of the characters, past and present, in human evolution research
• Explains the functions of geochronology and paleoclimatology

Readership: For students and anyone with an interest in human evolution, archaeology, and genetics.

Bernard Wood, Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Origins at George Washington University and the Smithsonian Institution in 1997

1: What to expect
2: Finding our place
3: Fossil hominins - discovery and context
4: Fossil hominins - analysis and interpretation
5: Possible and probable early hominins
6: Archaic hominins
7: Transitional and archaic Homo
8: Modern human origins
Timelines
Personalities
Further Reading