Fossil Men is the riveting science-adventure story of the brilliant team who discovered the "Ardi" skeleton, a human more than a million years older than the famous Lucy, and their 20-year quest to redefine our understanding of human evolution.

"The most up-to-date science on the genetics of who we are and where we come from, showing us a more scientifically enlightened way to talk colloquially about race"-- Racist pseudoscience can be hard to spot, but its toxic effects on society are plain to see: feeding nationalism, fueling hatred, endangering lives, and corroding our discourse on everything from sports to intelligence. Cutting-edge genetics are hard to grasp-- and all too easy to distort....

"Over the last century, the search for human ancestors has spanned four continents and resulted in the discovery of hundreds of fossils. Most of these discoveries live quietly in museum collections, but some have become celebrities, embraced by wide audiences and held as touchstones in how we understand our human origins. In Seven Skeletons, historian of science Lydia Pyne explores how seven of them gained their fame. Pyne introduces readers to the...

When a virus that has slept in our DNA for millions of years wakes up, will the human race survive?

Outlines a reassessment of human evolution that draws on recent fossil findings and challenges current theories to say that humans coexisted and competed across the African continent while exchanging genes, tools, and behaviors.

A Dartmouth anthropologist whose team discovered two ancient human species explores how our evolution toward bipedalism rendered us dominant, innovative, more compassionate, and more susceptible to health problems.

In the 12 fascinating lessons of Identity in the Age of Ancestral DNA, Anita Foeman, PhD, Professor of Communication and Media, and founder and primary investigator of the DNA Discussion Project at West Chester University, takes us behind the scenes to examine what really happens when individuals receive their personal DNA ancestry results. By learning about their individual and family reactions, we learn more about our own identity narratives as...

In humanity's more than 100,000 year history, we have evolved from vulnerable creatures clawing sustenance from Earth to a sophisticated global society manipulating every inch of it. In short, we have become the dominant animal. Why, then, are we creating a world that threatens our own species? What can we do to change the current trajectory toward more climate change, increased famine, and epidemic disease?

Renowned Stanford scientists Paul...

Neil Shubin, a leading paleontologist and professor of anatomy who discovered Tiktaalik--the "missing link" that made headlines around the world in April 2006--tells the story of evolution by tracing the organs of the human body back millions of years, long before the first creatures walked the earth. By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a long-extinct jawless...

When Bernd Heinrich decided to write a memoir of his ultramarathon running experience, he realized that the preparation for the race was as important, if not more so, than the race itself. Considering the physiology and motivation of running from a scientific point of view, he wondered what he could learn from other animals. In Why We Run, Heinrich considers the flight endurance of birds, the antelope's running prowess and limitations, and the ultra-endurance...