The first human : the race to discover our earliest ancestors
The quest to find where and when the earliest human ancestors first appeared is one of the most exciting and challenging of all scientific pursuits. The First Human is the story of four international teams obsessed with solving the mystery of human evolution and of the intense rivalries that propel them. There is Californian Tim White, French paleontologist Michel Brunet, zoologist Meave Leakey, British geologist Martin Pickford and his partner, Brigitte Senut, a French paleontologist. Through research and first-person reporting, The First Human takes readers behind the scenes to reveal the intense challenges of fossil hunting on a grand competitive scale.--From publisher description
Nonfiction
xxiii, 306 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm
9780385512268, 0385512260
61652817
Map: the cradle of humanity
"First Human" fossil finds by year
Time line: the human family
The fossil hunters
African trailblazers
Continental divide
The early ancestor
Drawing bloodlines
Lucy, the late ancestor
Defining humans
Banishment
The lady of the lake
A view from afar
The root ape
West side story
Turf wars
Toeing the line
Millennium man
Toumai
Bones of contention
Habitat for humanity