{"product_id":"the-wisdom-of-the-bones-in-search-of-human-origins-9780679747833","title":"The Wisdom of the Bones: In Search of Human Origins","description":"\"Fascinating. . . . As engaging an explanation of how scientists study fossil bones as any I have ever read.\" --John R. Alden, Philadelphia Inquirer \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1984 a team of paleoanthropologists on a dig in northern Kenya found something extraordinary: a nearly complete skeleton of Homo erectus, a creature that lived 1.5 million years ago and is widely thought to be the missing link between apes and humans. The remains belonged to a tall, rangy adolescent male. The researchers called him \"Nariokotome boy.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this immensely lively book, Alan Walker, one of the lead researchers, and his wife and fellow scientist Pat Shipman tell the story of that epochal find and reveal what it tells us about our earliest ancestors. We learn that Nariokotome boy was a highly social predator who walked upright but lacked the capacity for speech. In leading us to these conclusions, The Wisdom of the Bones also offers an engaging chronicle of the hundred-year-long search for a \"missing link,\" a saga of folly, heroic dedication, and inspired science. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Brilliantly captures [an] intellectual odyssey. . . . One of the finest examples of a practicing scientist writing for a popular audience.\" \u003cbr\u003e--Portland Oregonian \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A vivid insider's perspective on the global efforts to document our own ancestry.\"\u003cbr\u003e--Richard E. Leakey\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlan Walker\u003c\/b\u003e is professor Emeritus at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Before going to Canada, he worked in the Music Division of the BBC in London. He is the author of several books of musical criticism and analysis including \u003ci\u003eHans von Bülow: a Life and Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eReflections on Liszt\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eLiszt: v. 3. The Final Years\u003c\/i\u003e, to name a few. He has organized numerous Liszt festivals and symposia in the United States and Canada. For his contributions to Liszt scholarship, the government of Hungary awarded him the Pro Cultura Hungarica medal. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003ePat Shipman\u003c\/b\u003e is a professor of anthropology at Penn State University and coauthor of the award-winning\u003ci\u003e The Ape in the Tree\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Wisdom of Bones. \u003c\/i\u003eHer other works include \u003ci\u003eThe Man Who Found the Missing Link, Taking Wing, \u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e To the Heart of the Nile\u003c\/i\u003e. She writes for \u003ci\u003eAmerican Scientist\u003c\/i\u003e and lives in Pennsylvania.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51807137825042,"sku":"9780679747833","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c6c8eea0-963e-493c-8c45-fbbd91841896.jpg?v=1766043480","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-wisdom-of-the-bones-in-search-of-human-origins-9780679747833","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}