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

I enjoyed the content and the new information (for me) on the celestial causes of climate oscillations and their clear links with phases of rapid evolution was illuminating. However, I found the poor level of proofreading and disconcerting lapses in grammar (e.g., lurching from the present to the past tense within sentences) annoying. Some of the spelling mistakes were awful and should have been picked up immediately (e.g., "allopaty" for "allopatry"). I would have knocked off a grade at least if marking this as a graduate student assignment. Sloppy work!

Never fully answers the hypothesis proposed, covers the general geology of the East African Rift and some of it's effects, but doesn't get over the finish line of culture/tribal impacts. There are several better books homo evolution, I was drawn in by the hypothesis and left without the answers I was led to expect. A single proof reading would have found many errors in the text.

A short an interesting read. I enjoyed his perspective of human evolution, which seems well-supported by evidence in this book. It can get a bit dry at times, hence the 4 stars, but that's a relatively minor issue I had. This one will stay on my bookshelf.

This book pulls together from biology, geography, meteorology, geology and astrophysics to answer key questions surrounding how humans evolved. Fantastic!

Maislin write-up Despite some early statements promising more, this book is a careful review of what is known about human evolutionary history, and of the changes in climate in East Africa which had an impact. The climate science is challenging, and one problem with the book is that Maislin is too ambitious, not limiting the scope of the discussion as much as he could have. Maislin is a good writer, and I would welcome a more leisurely treatment of all the aspects of climate science he attempts to cover - perhaps that is the purpose of Maslin's book "Climate: A Very Short Introduction", but the "very short" and one of the Amazon reviews makes me skeptical. Our evolutionary tree is really a bush, with multiple genera and interbreeding. Surprisingly, bipedalism, “the defining feature of hominems (those of our fossil ancestors which had split from the great apes) may have originated many times”. Instead of originating in a savannah, it originated in forests and fragmented ecosystems, with creatures who had long arms and spent most of the time in trees for safety, and food sources. “Some of these bipedal hominins were already using stone tools by at least 3.3 million years ago.”, yet were still small brained. “Many of us would argue that the homo genus should really start with Homo erectus”, who comes onto the scene about 1.8 million years ago and who was significantly larger brained than its predecessors. Masilin says the evidence does not support the use of controlled fire by Homo erectus, but that by slicing meat and pounding root vegetables he was able to gain enough calories to support the larger brain, (and not devote as many calories to digestion). Evidence shows that Homo erectus had “the ability for abstract design and thus symbolic activity.”, and Maislin believes language likely began with Homo Erectus. This may surprise readers given Maislin’s earlier summary chapter on human evolution in which he says it “is not until 100,000 years ago that there is evidence of creative thinking. From 50,000 years ago this becomes more consistent.” The origin of homo Sapiens is around 200,000 years ago. What happened between then and 50,000 years ago? Maislin cites fossils showing “craniofacial feminization”: the theory is that with less testosterone there was less violent, impulsive, behavior resulting in larger social groups, more cooperation, more accumulation of culture; functioning in larger social groups places more of a premium on cognitive ability; there was probably more fission, fusion grouping leading to wider social networks and less ingrown mating. What is Maislin’s actual viewpoint on human evolution? “It seems as if no single theory (of human evolution) may be right, but I would instead argue that all of them may be right”. Most of it did occur in Eastern Africa, associated with the Rift Valley and its climate changes, long periods of stability punctuated by shorter periods of great climate variability. Lakes grew and then more quickly disappeared, in a number of cycles.

This is a great read. Understanding the evolution of our species requires the integration of many fields, and Maslin does a great job of bringing them together for both the scientist and the non- scientist. I don’t think that most people understand the many variables that control evolution. We tend to be trained to think linearly, along one field, such as biology, but evolution incorporates all aspects of life- climate, environment, and chance. Rarely do we get to explore the inter-relationship of the many controls of life on earth, and to think about their role in who/ what we are today. This is a great handbook for exploring our shared journey of human evolution.

This is a great read bringing together geology, climatology and hominin development. Felt a bit like lecture notes in patches, but that is why I bought it: to learn. As a first read this would be tough, but for readers already familiar with the topic it is very enriching. Personally I found the climatology aspect the most intriguing - being new to me. Did not get 100% why rift valley climate pulsing furthered hominin development. Will read this book again as it is so packed with info that I needed to make notes.

I found this a very boring piece of work due the fact I felt I had read parts of this before and YES I have. I think this could have been so much better. This is just a collage of idea with no real 'additional' substance - sorry, but I didn't get into this one at all :-(

Interesting and thought-provoking. Could have been better edited though; it was a bit repetitive, and there were lots of misprints (particularly in diagrams).

Highly interesting but could have done with editing.

Hervorragender Überblick und Begründungen, wo (Rift Vally in Ostafrika) und warum (regelmässige Klimaänderungen) sich Homo Sapiens so entwickelt hat, wie er sich entwickelt hat.Kann ich nur empfehlen. Sehr verständlich geschrieben.