Skeletons in the closet. Dramatic Human Evolution (The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack: and Other Cautionary Tales from Human Evolution)

A cool book on paleanthropology from Ian Tattersal, written in the style of a timeline of real finds of hominid bones. The author describes how different types of people coexisted and fought with each other. He talks about the hypotheses that were put forward on the basis of these findings regarding the dramatic evolution of man. If we talk about the book itself, the most delicious part of it falls on the epilogue and the last paragraph before it:

The emergence of Homo Sapiens ... was an unexpected occurrence, not a protracted process. If we properly perceive the sharpness of this fateful transition, there is no way that our unusual cognitive abilities can be perfected by the products of long-term selective pressure. We may be thinking creatures, but nature did not create us for any particular purpose. Who are we? n

Very inspired text for me. Actually, the book is really interesting. I recommend reading it.

#History #PopularScience