The Cradle of Humanity: How the Changing Landscape of Africa Made Us So Smart

by Mark Maslin

Overview

One of the fundamental questions of our existence is why we are so smart. There are lots of drawbacks to having a large brain, including the huge food intake needed to keep the organ running, the frequency with which it goes wrong, and our very high infant and mother mortality rates compared with other mammals, due to the difficulty of giving birth to offspring with very large heads. So why did evolution favour the brainy ape? This question has been widely debated among biological anthropologists, and in recent years, Maslin and his colleagues have pioneered a new theory that might just be the answer.

Looking back to a crucial period some 1.9 million years ago, when brain capacity increased by as much as 80%, The Cradle of Humanity explores the implications of two adaptive responses by our hominin ancestors to rapid climatic changes - big jaws, and big brains. Maslin argues that the impact of changing landscapes and fluctuating climates that led to the appearance of intermittent freshwater lakes in East Africa may have played a key role in human evolution. Alongside the physical evidence of fossils and tools, he considers social theories of why a large, complex brain would have provided a major advantage when trying to survive in the constantly changing East African landscape.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198704522
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/02/2017
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Mark Maslin, Professor of Geography, University College London

Mark Maslin (FRGS, FRSA) is a Professor of Climatology and Environmental Sciences at University College London, and is currently a Royal Society Industrial Fellow. He was the former Director of the UCL Environment Institute and Head of the Department of Geography, and in recent years has presented over 45 public talks, at the UK Space conference, Oxford, Cambridge, Tate Modern, Royal Society of Medicine, British Museum, Natural History Museum, Freshfields, Goldman Sachs and both the Norwegian and UK Government. He has been published in multiple journals, and is the author of Climate: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2013), and Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2014), now in its third editon.

Table of Contents

1. In the Beginning2. Early Human Evolution3. Tectonic and Climate4. Cradle of Humanity5. Global Climate Change6. Celestial Mechanics7. African Climate Pulses8. The Social Brain9. Future of Humanity10. The story so farFurther Reading

Editorial Reviews

"This book offers far more than a palaeoanthropological cocktail with a twist ... In synthesising the most recent research in palaeoanthropology and giving the ecology of our ancestors a climatological twist, Maslin has produced a book that is fascinating, humbling and informative." — Adrian Barnett, New Scientist

"Impressively in-depth and well-explained mix of encyclopaedic information... There is an amazing amount of information packed into this surprisingly slim book." — Chris Fitch, Geographical

"Palaeoclimatologist Mark Maslin delves into deep time to trace humanity's rise to geological hegemony. Examining early hominin finds in East Africa, he spotlights three stages (bipedalism in Australophithecus, a jump in brain size in Homo erectus and Homo sapiens' arrival some 195,000 years ago) and the roles of climate change, celestial mechanics and plate tectonics in their emergence. Ultimately, he theorizes that 'climate pulses' in the Rift Valley, in which hyper-arid conditions alternated with the formation of vast lakes, helped to drive the evolution of the big hominin brain." — Nature

"Anyone who reads The Cradle of Humanity will certainly be enlightened about this awe-inspiring journey." — Andrew Robinson, Current World Archaeology

"Understanding the emergence of our species from the unique landscapes of East Africa is one of the great scientific challenges. Mark Maslin takes us on an exhilarating intellectual journey, encompassing geology, astronomy, climate science and evolutionary biology, to argue that the unique landscape and ever-changing climate of the East African Rift Valley were instrumental in catalysing the emergence of a civilisation on our planet. I'm left with a dizzying feeling of our good fortune to be here at all, and a powerful sense of our responsibility, as Maslin notes, to earn our species name: "Wise"." — Professor Brian Cox

"As we confront rapid, major changes in the earth's climate today, it is imperative we understand how past climate change made us who we are. This fast-paced book vividly tells the story of how and why shifting environments have been driving human evolution ever since our earliest beginnings in Africa, and why those changes matter." — Daniel E Lieberman, Harvard University, author of Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease

"An interesting and novel take on the subject ... a superb and highly recommended book that convincingly argues how the happenstance conditions in East Africa shaped us and our forebears." — Leon Vlieger, NHBS

"A powerful, gripping account of how the dynamic earth shaped human evolution... With impressive ease, Maslin packs a tremendous amount of knowledge into a flowing narrative, making the point that special conditions for a number of species of tropical apes on the African continent eventually turned out to be luck... A tour de force through Earth's history and a timely reminder of just how lucky we are to be here at all." — Peter C. Kjærgaard, Director and Professor, Natural History Museum of Denmark

"In this tale of mountains, monsoons, and meteorites, climate and ocean currents, Maslin masterfully puts human evolution into context, and shows how the earth and its environments have shaped us." — Professor Alice Roberts, anthropologist, author, and broadcaster

From the Publisher