A unique approach to human origins and related evolutionary processes, this is an authoritative visual presentation that uses carefully developed coloring concepts to portray the processes of evolution. The book is organized into 6 sections: Evidence for evolution; The molecular basis of life; Our living primate relatives; Primate diversity and adaptation; Human evolution; Human adaptation. Sections are cross-referenced throughout the text to strengthen the student's understanding of how all topics are integrated. Click here to download a .pdf file of sample pages from the book. (376Kb)

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A human female is born, lives her life, and dies within the space of a few decades, but the shape of her life has been strongly influenced by 50 million years of primate evolution and more than 100 million years of mammalian evolution. How the individual female plays out the stages of her life from infancy, through the reproductive period, to old age and how these stages have been formed by a long evolutionary process, is the theme of this collection. Written by leading scholars in fields ranging from evolutionary biology to cultural anthropology, these essays together examine what it means to be female, integrating the life histories of marine mammals, monkeys, apes, and humans. The result is a fascinating inquiry into the similarities among the ways females of different species balance the need for survival with their role in reproduction and mothering.