The Human Story, edited by Graham Lawton. New Scientist, The Collection, Issue 4, 2014. No. of pages: 128. Price: UK£9‐99. ISSN 2054‐6386 (paperback).

Abstract

It has happened to me more than once. Telling some new acquaintance that I am a palaeontologist, I am expected to be an expert on some extinct backboned vermin that they saw reanimated on television, commonly a dinosaur, but it might be a mammoth or caveman. If the latter, they are soon frustrated by my reply that my knowledge of hominins is no more up to date than Piltdown Man. But no longer; I have enthusiastically devoured The Human Story, and my head is stuffed full of relevant facts, ideas and tit-bits. This book/magazine is ‘…a compilation of classic articles from New Scientist…’ (p. 1) most of which I missed the first time around, but they are now reproduced on higher quality paper than the originals. Although a compilation, changes from one subject to the next within and between chapters are not too jarring. The Human Story follows the well-known style and page size of New Scientist, with the usual zesty intermingling of well-written text, and easily intelligible line drawings (including excellent timelines) and relevant images, all in colour. I emphasise the well-written aspect; subjects as diverse as ancient DNA, viruses, Neogene palaeontology and skeletal morphology are all explained with equal clarity. Each ‘chapter’ is made up of two or more essays. The most relevant to the geologist are ‘The big picture’, ‘Distant origins’, ‘Around the world’ and ‘Extinct cousins’. If I have one criticism of such a readable and well-illustrated volume, it is that there is inconsistency between the diagrams involving geological time between different chapters. Thus, on p. 21, the Paleocene to Recent transition proceeds from left to right; on p. 28, the Recent is at the top of the page; and on p. 32 it has moved to the bottom of the page. All confusing to the casual reader, I am sure. I would also have been more pleased if advertisements were not included. A strength of The Human Story is that it presents science as ideas, not facts. We know what the questions are (but they may change), we have data of variable quality (such as the poor fossil record of hominins) and we think we know what they mean, but different research leaders interpret them in different ways. Multiple interpretations make the text all that more interesting. This is an enthralling way to present ideas that are not trivial or easy to understand, in a format designed to keep the reader riveted. It also demonstrates that the question may be much easier to pose than to answer. The main discussion of the fossil evidence, ‘The origin of our species’ in ‘The big picture’, is brief, but fittingly is the first chapter, and further related aspects pop up in many subsequent sections. The poor fossil record of hominins continues to improve, as it must, and with australopithecines now dating back about 6 million years, the split from the chimpanzee clade is almost discernible from fossils rather than just DNA. The discussion of the bushiness (or not) of the hominin evolutionary phylogenetic tree is all too brief, but alternative topologies are given in later chapters. The Human Story is for any scientist, amateur, student or professional, with an interest in our own evolution. It pulls together our fossil record with the myriad other methods of studying human evolution now available to science. I give this reasonably priced and well-produced volume my full recommendation.