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    The Improbable Primate: How Water Shaped Human Evolution

    The Improbable Primate by Finlayson, Clive;

    How Water Shaped Human Evolution

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      • Publisher's listprice GBP 20.99
      • The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.

        9 476 Ft (9 025 Ft + 5% VAT)
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      • Discounted price 8 529 Ft (8 123 Ft + 5% VAT)

    9 476 Ft

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    Product details:

    • Publisher OUP Oxford
    • Date of Publication 27 March 2014

    • ISBN 9780199658794
    • Binding Hardback
    • No. of pages232 pages
    • Size 224x148x20 mm
    • Weight 376 g
    • Language English
    • Illustrations Approx. 13 black and white illustrations
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    Short description:

    In this provocative view of human evolution, Clive Finlayson argues that the critical factor to shape us was environmental change, particularly the availability of water. Using these new insights he demonstrates the radical implications for our understanding of the emergence and spread of Homo sapiens.

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    Long description:

    In this fresh and provocative view of a seven-million-year evolutionary journey, Finlayson demonstrates the radical implications for the interpretation of fossils and technologies and shows that understanding humans within an ecological context provides insights into the emergence and spread of Homo sapiens worldwide. Finlayson argues that environmental change, particularly availability of water, played a critical role in shaping the direction of human evolution, contributing to our spread and success. He argues that our ancestors carved a niche for themselves by leaving the forest and forcing their way into a long-established community of carnivores in a tropical savannah as climate changes opened up the landscape. They took their chance at high noon, when most other predators were asleep. Adapting to this new lifestyle by shedding their hair and developing an active sweating system to keep cool, being close to fresh water was vital. As the climate dried, our ancestors, already bipedal, became taller and slimmer, more adept at travelling farther in search of water. The challenges of seeking water in a drying landscape moulded the minds and bodies of early humans, and directed their migrations and eventual settlements.

    Did water make people human? Mr Finlayson certainly makes a convincing case.

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    Table of Contents:

    Preface
    The Inverted Panda
    And the World Changed Forever
    At the Lake's Edge
    The first humans
    Middle Earth: The home of the first humans
    The Drying World of the Middle Pleistocene
    The Rain Chasers - Solutions in a Drying World
    The Exceptional World of the Neanderthal
    Global Expansion of the Rain Chasers
    Nature's Driving Force
    Australia
    From Lake Chad to Puritjarra and beyond
    The Improbable Primate Revisited

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