Our Earliest Ancestors

From Purgatorius , the earliest known primate, an omnivore the size of a squirrel, to our closest relatives--the African anthropoid apes, chimps and gorillas--and on to Homo sapiens , this volume affords an engrossing, concise, panoramic overview of human origins and evolution. Kurten, the late Finnish paleontologist and popular author, evenhandedly reviews current controversies, such as which ancestral line led to the hominids, why humans got up on two legs and whether modern human beings lived alongside the Neanderthals, who buried their dead with funeral gifts. He deduces that upright-walking Australopithecus , the earliest known hominid, is more closely related to apes than to humans. Kurten concludes that natural selection still operates among humans, who may be the only living beings with the potential for real advances in evolution. Illustrated. (Sept.)