Last Ape Standing: The Seven-Million-Year Story of How and Why We Survived
Bloomsbury, 2013
Over the past 150 years scientists have discovered evidence that at least twenty-seven species of humans evolved on planet Earth. These weren't simply variations on apes, but upright-walking humans who lived side by side, competing, cooperating, sometimes even mating with our direct ancestors. Why did the line of ancient humans who eventually evolved into us survive when the others were shown the evolutionary door?
Chip Walter draws on new scientific discoveries to tell the fascinating tale of how our survival was linked to our ancestors being born more prematurely than others, having uniquely long and rich childhoods, evolving a new kind of mind that made us resourceful and emotionally complex; how our highly social nature increased our odds of survival; and why we became self aware in ways that no other animal seems to be. Last Ape Standing also profiles the mysterious "others" who evolved with us-the Neanderthals of Europe, the "Hobbits" of Indonesia, the Denisovans of Siberia and the just-discovered Red Deer Cave people of China who died off a mere eleven thousand years ago.
Last Ape Standing is evocative science writing at its best-a witty, engaging and accessible story that explores the evolutionary events that molded us into the remarkably unique creatures we are; an investigation of why we do, feel, and think the things we do as a species, and as people-good and bad, ingenious and cunning, heroic and conflicted.
Notes from the author:
Earlier in my career, when I was producing documentaries for PBS, I created a one hour show entitled Fires of the Mind. It was about the evolution of human intelligence. Some segments were shot in Tanzania and I never forgot that experience, and I always wanted to look further into how we human beings came to be the remarkable creatures we are. Homo sapiens, after all, are so essentially different from all of the world’s other creatures! By this time, I had learned something else remarkable. We aren’t the only human species to have evolved on planet Earth. In fact, at least 27 other very intelligent human species have emerged over the past seven million years, and 75,000 years ago at least five human species were living and struggling to survive at the same time: Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo erectus and Homo Floriensis (the so called hobbits of Indonesia). I am going to guess, several more others we don’t know about were also running around. It was not clear at that time that we would emerge as the dominant species on Earth. How, I wondered, did that happen? Who were these “others?” And why did we survive when they didn’t?
Last Ape Standing tells that story.
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Dispatches from a Last Ape Standing
Relive Chip’s adventures on assignment for National Geographic Magazine South Africa
