The wisdom of bones : in search of human origins
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The wisdom of bones : in search of human origins
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996
Available at 3 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Bibliography: p. 253-260
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This work tells the story of the excavation of the "Nariokotome Boy", found in Kenya in 1984 by Richard Leakey and Walker, and the most complete skeleton of Homo erectus ever found. The book also details the detective work that followed the find and the insights into our species that were revealed. The "Nariokotome Boy" has been able to tell scientists more about the human past than any other fossil so far. Instead of a human trapped in an ape body, Walker and his team found an animal in a human body - a small brain, but with legs, pelvis and torso that were astonishingly human, along with a thoroughly human adaptation to his tropical climate in terms of body build and heat disposition. The animal had mastered the human "trick" of growing a human brain at foetal rates, something no true animal can do. They also discovered that the Boy was speechless, a fact contradicting the accepted wisdom that language acquisition marks the origin of humankind.
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