Reddit reviews Processes in Human Evolution: The Journey From Early Hominins To Neanderthals And Modern Humans

When I did my undergrad the most up to date textbook about human evolution was Reconstructing Human Origins: A Modern Synthesis, with the latest edition published in 2012. I thought it was quite informative, though maybe lacking some detail in some aspects (especially morphology, which may actually not be that relevant to you).

I found that two new books were published in the last two years -

Processes in Human Evolution: The Journey From Early Hominins To Neanderthals And Modern Humans. The author is Franceso Ayala, a name which I never encountered while doing my undergrad. A quick google search revealed that he's an evolutionary geneticist and a philosopher, so I wonder if the focus of the book is more on palaeogenetics than behaviour or morphology. Has anyone read it?

The other book is The Science of Human Evolution. Based on the chapters it looks like it's focused on providing the reader with an up to date information on current topics in evolutionary anthropology. Sounds pretty interesting. Has anyone had to chance to read it?

You can also look at how we've evolved physiologically, with regards to our bodies and how they're adapted for persistence hunting techniques. We have several other adaptations that aid running, big buttock muscles that only really engage fully when running, the pinch in the hip only seen in later Homo sp to help balance when running, and tendons like the Achilles are adapted for running, evolution of the nuchal ligament etc. We have little body hair, and far more sweat glands than any other primate to prevent hyperthermia. Our bodies have pigmentation (we were totally black during our evolution, even up until 10k years ago - first Britons were black) that is universal, which would protect us in heat of the day from skin cancers, etc. We "exchanged" our ability to climb trees, for the ability to run long distance, something no other primate can do. People like to say “we cant hunt, go and hunt a rabbit and see” – Not all animals hunt in the same fashion. https://youtu.be/826HMLoiE_o Running prey down over long distance - humans are the best long distance runners on the planet. No animal can match us. Some might say, isn't our ability to run for running away from predators? No. We do not have fast acceleration like a gazelle, we couldn't outrun an ensuing predator at all – they’re fast over short distances.


Our shoulder also evolved for throwing, throwing that would've been used for throwing weapons/spears. Not for throwing paper airplanes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y__4xX8xp8&t=62s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_bYlY6AHew&t=1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zb2wsgYNwk&t=5s
We can generate far greater throwing speeds than any other primate. As can be read here: https://scholar.harvard.edu/ntroach/evolution-throwing
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3785139/


Even our teeth. There are other primates with huge canines, but there is a significant (lots of differences, not just this one) difference between us and other primates, behaviour. We do not display our teeth for defensive, or mating purposes. Male gorilla's will often show their canines as a show of dominance, thus it is evolutionary advantageous for them to have bigger canines - not only for a show of dominance, but also to win over impressionable females. Similar to how stags with largest antlers are the most attractive to females. Our canines existence is purely for the tearing or ripping through tough fibrous material like meat. Why are they so small? Our canines have gradually been getting smaller, along with our teeth in general (and jaw) from the early Australopiths. Basically down to tool use, extra processing outside of the mouth meant that it wasn't necessary to have big powerful jaws or huge flat molars like in earlier species, or massive canines. If you look at our teeth in more detail - our teeth became smaller and our enamel became thinner which allows for microscopic breakages creating sharp edges, both which aid shearing of meat. Even our molars are very adept at slicing through meat, which you wouldn't think at first. There is plenty of shearing action in our jaw motion. This is demonstrated by this video: https://youtu.be/hdBQG8lKszk


To say meat consumption was sparse or only in small amounts, is wrong and misleading, the above points and more clearly point towards a significant increase in meat intake and it was vital to get us to the point we are at today. Haven't got the time to sit here and explain it in even more detail, but I can recommend these books as a starting point if you're at all genuinely interested in the subject.


https://www.amazon.com/Processes-Human-Evolution-hominins-Neanderthals/dp/0198739915/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1530356167&sr=8-5&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=Human+evolution&dpPl=1&dpID=51ihhNFeyIL&ref=plSrch
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Human-Body-Evolution-Disease/dp/030774180X/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1530356167&sr=8-6&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=Human+evolution&dpPl=1&dpID=41oZy7BlFpL&ref=plSrch
https://www.amazon.com/Evolutions-Bite-Story-Teeth-Origins/dp/0691160538/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530356353&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=Teeth+evolution&dpPl=1&dpID=51m-p9AT1CL&ref=plSrch
https://www.amazon.com/Mammal-Teeth-Origin-Evolution-Diversity/dp/0801896681/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1530356386&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=Teeth+evolution&dpPl=1&dpID=51hDV7cQ%2B6L&ref=plSrch