John H. Langdon - Human Evolution: Bones, Cultures, and Genes

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I find the study of paleoanthropology both fascinating and humbling. The fascination begins in the imagination. What would it have been like to be alive in the past? What did the men and women of prehistory experience? What thoughts did they have and why were not they more inventive? Fascination continues with each new discovery. Often the field has been compared to completing a jigsaw puzzle with 99% of the pieces missing. Almost monthly another piece comes to light, and each one feels like a gift to be unwrapped. Where does it fit? What does it tell us? It may add only a tiny detail, but every few years the picture must be redrawn based on finds so unexpected that there is no place for them in the old version.

It is humbling to acknowledge how little we know. Many books on this topic try to give the impression that we have the answers that we know how humans evolved and we are just trying to fill in the details. I sincerely hope this volume does not fall into that category. Good questions are far more important in guiding future understanding than hypothetical answers. Old ideas deserve to be challenged, but to do that effectively, we must be aware of the evidence and reasoning that created them in the first place. At the end of most chapters are a few Important questions we cannot answer. I encourage the reader to add to that list.

It is also humbling to place humankind in a broad context. As a species, Homo sapiens is both trivial and terrifying. We share the earth with about nine million other species today, and these are a tiny part of one percent of those that have ever lived. Recorded history and even the first villages and crops are so recent that they do not make it into this story. Ours has only been around perhaps 200,000 years since its origin in Africa, but in this time we have both improved the planet for our own purposes and seriously damaged it. Whether other species can avoid extinction depends on how well they can tolerate human activity. Whether we continue, evolve, or become extinct remains for future generations to determine.

My purpose in writing this book has been to bring the account of human evolution up to date with the latest contributions from many disciplines. It explores how recent discoveries are challenging what we thought we knew, and attempts to build a sense of anticipation for the next revelation. The greatest leaps in our understanding occur when we reach beyond the painstaking work of fossil hunting and archaeological excavations to see what other disciplines can contribute. Anatomy, climatology, cultural anthropology, ecology, embryology, ethology, geology, genetics, genomics, chemistry, neuroscience, physics, and physiology all have their place in telling our story.

This effort could not have been possible without the support of many people. I would like to thank my teachers and students from whom I have learned; friends and colleagues, especially Shawn Hurst; and reviewers of this work in progress. Katherine Langdon, Amy Langdon, and David Strait have been invaluable in assembling illustrations. Jos Mara Bermdez de Castro, Robert Blumenschine, Peter Brown, Ron Clarke, Thure Cerling, Christopher Dean, Eric Delson, Fernando Diez-Martin, Paul John Myburgh, and Christine Baile and Samantha Guenther at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History generously gave permission for the reuse of images.

Most of all, I am indebted to my beloved wife, Terry, for her consistent patience and encouragement.