The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack: and Other Cautionary Tales from Human Evolution

In his new book The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack, human paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall argues that a long tradition of human exceptionalism in paleoanthropology has distorted the picture of human evolution. Drawing partly on his own career--from young scientist in awe of his elders to crotchety elder statesman--Tattersall offers an idiosyncratic look at the competitive world of paleoanthropology, beginning with Charles Darwin 150 years ago, and continuing through the Leakey dynasty in Africa, and concluding with the latest astonishing findings in the Caucasus.The books title refers to the 1856 discovery of a clearly very old skull cap in Germanys Neander Valley. The possessor had a brain as large as a modern human, but a heavy low braincase with a prominent brow ridge.