Audiobook9 hours
The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors
Written by Ann Gibbons
Narrated by Renee Raudman
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
This dynamic chronicle of the race to find the "missing links" between humans and apes transports readers into the highly competitive world of fossil hunting and into the lives of the ambitious scientists intent on pinpointing the dawn of humankind.
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.
An award-winning science writer, Ann Gibbons introduces the various maverick fossil hunters and describes their most significant discoveries in Africa. There is Tim White, the irreverent and brilliant Californian whose team discovered the partial skeleton of a primate that lived more than 4.4 million years ago in Ethiopia. If White can prove that it was hominid-an ancestor of humans and not of chimpanzees or other great apes-he can lay claim to discovering the oldest known member of the human family. As White painstakingly prepares the bones, the French paleontologist Michel Brunet comes forth with another, even more startling find. Well known for his work in the most remote and hostile locations, Brunet and his team uncover a stunning skull in Chad that could set the date of the beginnings of humankind to almost seven million years ago. Two other groups-one led by the zoologist Meave Leakey, the other by the British geologist Martin Pickford and his partner, Brigitte Senut, a French paleontologist-enter the race with landmark discoveries of other fossils vying for the status of the first human ancestor.
Through scrupulous research and vivid first-person reporting, The First Human takes readers behind the scenes to reveal the intense challenges of fossil hunting on a grand competitive scale.
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.
An award-winning science writer, Ann Gibbons introduces the various maverick fossil hunters and describes their most significant discoveries in Africa. There is Tim White, the irreverent and brilliant Californian whose team discovered the partial skeleton of a primate that lived more than 4.4 million years ago in Ethiopia. If White can prove that it was hominid-an ancestor of humans and not of chimpanzees or other great apes-he can lay claim to discovering the oldest known member of the human family. As White painstakingly prepares the bones, the French paleontologist Michel Brunet comes forth with another, even more startling find. Well known for his work in the most remote and hostile locations, Brunet and his team uncover a stunning skull in Chad that could set the date of the beginnings of humankind to almost seven million years ago. Two other groups-one led by the zoologist Meave Leakey, the other by the British geologist Martin Pickford and his partner, Brigitte Senut, a French paleontologist-enter the race with landmark discoveries of other fossils vying for the status of the first human ancestor.
Through scrupulous research and vivid first-person reporting, The First Human takes readers behind the scenes to reveal the intense challenges of fossil hunting on a grand competitive scale.
Related to The First Human
Related audiobooks
Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cafe Neandertal: Excavating Our Past in One of Europe's Most Ancient Places Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Origin of Humankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5First Steps: How Upright Walking Made Us Human Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rhinoceros Giants: The Paleobiology of Indricotheres Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Once a Wolf: The Science Behind Our Dogs' Astonishing Genetic Evolution Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Superlative: The Biology of Extremes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Pocket History of Human Evolution: How We Became Sapiens Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Way: A Story of the First People Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Evolution Is Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5World Prehistory: The Basics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Explorers of the Nile: The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World's Most Famous Human Fossils Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Humans: A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War, and the Evolution of Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Close Encounters with Humankind: A Paleoanthropologist Investigates Our Evolving Species Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Weird Earth: Debunking Strange Ideas about Our Planet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dinosaurs Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution in Paleontology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries: The Evidence and the People Who Found It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5T. Rex and the Crater of Doom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Science & Mathematics For You
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: The Feels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radiolab: Mixtape: How The Cassette Changed The World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: Journey Through The Human Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thinking in Systems: A Primer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cosmos: A Personal Voyage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gene: An Intimate History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Quantum Physics: What Everyone Needs to Know Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brain Rules (Updated and Expanded): 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The First Human
Rating: 3.8863636272727273 out of 5 stars
4/5
44 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A very interesting look at some of the most important hominid fossil discoveries of the last 15 years, and the paleoanthropologists who discovered them. Ann Gibbons is a correspondent for Science magazine, and has covered human evolution for more than a decade. She does a fantastic job in this book of writing about evolution in a highly accurate, easy-to-read manner, without overly simplifying the topic for a mainstream audience.
It is rare for an evolution book to go into detail about the turmoil amongst scientists, and Gibbons does so in an even handed way. We get to hear about the dangers involved in the hunt for the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees, in regions subject to days-long sandstorms, bandits, and civil war. You also see how basic human emotions (ambition! jealousy!) and politics can interfere with the progression of science, especially in such a sensitive scientific topic. In fact, we almost hear more about the tensions in the field than the actual fossils themselves, which would be my only major complaint. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In this dynamic account, award-winning science writer Ann Gibbons chronicles an extraordinary quest to answer the most primal of questions: When and where was the dawn of humankind?Following four intensely competitive international teams of scientists in a heated race to find the “missing link”–the fossil of the earliest human ancestor–Gibbons ventures to Africa, where she encounters a fascinating array of fossil hunters: Tim White, the irreverent Californian who discovered the partial skeleton of a primate that lived 4.4 million years ago in Ethiopia; French paleontologist Michel Brunet, who uncovers a skull in Chad that could date the beginnings of humankind to seven million years ago; and two other groups–one led by zoologist Meave Leakey, the other by British geologist Martin Pickford and his French paleontologist partner, Brigitte Senut–who enter the race with landmark discoveries of their own. Through scrupulous research and vivid first-person reporting, The First Human reveals the perils and the promises of fossil hunting on a grand competitive scale.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book is a fascinating look into the world of modern Archaeology. The author gives a good summary of recent finds and the ages/characteristics of each, as well as a window on the situation of competition and rivalry among archaeologists.After reading this overview, it is possible to read further on each find - I am eager to read _Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins_ by Dr. Donald Johanson, which is on our New Nonfiction bookshelf at the library.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A very good and readable primer of where we are in the race to find the oldest hominid fossil. Incredible amount of new evidence just in the last ten years. Makes me want to fly off to Africa and search for old bones.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After have read many books on paleontology, this book is fresh because it focuses on the paleontologists and their conflicts. Makes their lives interesting.