Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins Audiobook (Free)

Fifty thousand years ago-merely a blip in evolutionary time-our Homo sapiens ancestors were competing for existence with other human being species, just as their precursors had done for millions of years. Yet something about our varieties distinguished it through the pack, and ultimately resulted in its survival as the rest became extinct. Precisely what was it that allowed Homo sapiens to become masters of the earth? Ian Tattersall, curator emeritus on the American Museum of Organic History, requires us deep into the fossil record to discover what made human beings so unique. Surveying a vast field from initial bipedality to language and cleverness, Tattersall argues that Homo sapiens obtained a winning combination of qualities that had not been the result of long-term evolutionary refinement. Rather, the ultimate result emerged quickly, shocking our world and changing it forever.