Ancient Bones: Unearthing the Astonishing New Story of How We Became Human

I got Ancient Bones through LT's Early Reviewer program and it is one of the best books I have received through the program. Ancient Bones is a well written and readable update of the current status of paleontology/archaeology of mankind. To expand, I use paleontology/archaeology as the distinction between the two is generally understood to be that archaeology deals with anatomically modern humans with archaeology and later, human culture while paleontology focuses on the fossils of non-human life. This book focuses distinctly on the transition point (or points) between modern humans and proto-ape ancestors.

Ancient Bones makes the argument that humanity descended more directly from a species in Europe and thus challenges the long show more prevailing "out of Africa" human migration theory. While interesting and well argued, this section of the book is more a snapshot of one side of an ongoing scientific debate about the origins of humanity. The more relevant and interesting portion of the book to me was the broader update that is provided about the scientific consensus surrounding human evolution and how it can be reconciled with the finding that some of our oldest ancestors were found in Europe.

If it has been awhile since you learned some of this history, the update is a bit of a surprise. Personally, I had the sense that our knowledge of human evolution was built on the discoveries of people like the Leakeys and their work in Olduvai Gorge that established that our first ancestors lived in eastern Africa and eventually migrated north into Europe and Asia. Neanderthals were alternatively part of the line or an offshoot that died out but otherwise modern humans arose in Africa and slowly spread throughout the globe.

Ancient Bones does a marvelous job of updating this understanding. In doing so it incorporates finds like the so called "hobbit" skeleton in Indonesia, Denisovan remains from Russia, and a lot of the information we have learned from detailed genetic analysis of earlier finds . This results in a far more complex story of evolution with different proto-humans appearing and disappearing with substantial evidence that the different species were still closely related enough to interbreed. The genetics also point to other branches of the human tree that we still haven't found.

As Ancient Bones freely acknowledges there remain a lot of unanswered questions and more we need to learn. With that acknowledgment, Ancient Bones serves as a very readable update on the current understanding of where we came from. Highly recommended. show less

Though a fan of science in its many forms, I am much more familiar with the early days of Christian Biblical history than with scientific history of the human species. I have studied it, but the ground seems to be slowly shifting in this realm. Böhme details these shifts in this work as he summarizes the evidence over the last 20-30 years. She does so through a lucid, suspenseful, and engaging manner. She questions many older theories through generally acknowledged facts and does not appear to have an overriding agenda.

Genetic analysis is beginning to teach us much about early humans and human-like species. The story that is emerging is related here (and it’s not a finished story yet). Humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans likely all show more shared DNA (that is, interbred) until differences united in what came to be known as the species of Homo sapiens. Those species likely came out of a “savannah belt” that included not just Africa but also Eurasia. Thought by thought and concept by concept, Böhme unpacks how we have come to grasp this new story. She does so through finely examining the data from find after find and skillfully integrating it in with existing theory. (That is, she proceeds like a scientist should.)

The translation is clear and flows well. Aside from direct references to Germany, it’s hard to tell that this work was originally composed in the German language. It is quite accessible to general audiences that have an interest in science. It doesn’t bog down in needless detail but keeps perspective on the big picture. The illustrations – particularly the maps – teach a lot.

Paleontology is fascinating because like religion, it can tell us where we came from and thus where we can go. Ideally, it does so in a non-ideologically driven manner, and Böhme represents this field well in this regard. If you’re curious about knowing the latest science on where humans came from, this book provides a compelling investigation. As with all science, it may not contain the final word, but it summarizes our best guess at present. I’m glad Böhme’s research has led my curiosity in digging through the facts as she has done with her hands through some of the finds. show less

I received an Advance Reader's Copy of this from the publisher Greystone Books through LibraryThing. Originally published in Germany, the translation for this North America edition was done by Jane Billinghurst.

This is a fascinating story of what may be the oldest common ancestor of great apes and humans, and what appears to be the earliest known ape exhibiting bipedalism. Well written, extremely well-cited (be warned, many of the references are to German papers and books), Böhme with her journalist co-authors Braun and Breier describe the discovery of the fossils, histories of other early hominins, and makes her case for why she thinks modern humans evolved from early apes not in Africa, rather Europe. And she lays out her case quite show more well. The Danuvius ape stands (couldn't resist) in the face of the "out of Africa" theory. Even more fascinating to me than the revelations were the descriptions of the paleoforensic analyses and technologies used to date the fossils, identify bone fragments, establish DNA connections. And it it all quite readable.

Selections from some of my flagged interest:

On paleoanthropology:

However, paleoanthropology, the relatively young science of prehistoric humans and their ancestors, has not always been characterized by goal-oriented, self-critical research. It has also had its share of accidental discoveries, vanity-driven agendas, dazzling personalities, and unscrupulous frauds.

Candid admissions establish trust.

Teeth are necessarily the most common fossils paleoanthropologists find and a lot can be determined from teeth. On the thickness of tooth enamel:

Building tooth enamel is an energy-intensive process, so no mammal has more tooth enamel than it needs. Afropithecus's thick enamel, therefore, points to a change in diet. It was probably eating food that was harder and tougher.

Böhme talks a bit about diet changes, ecological changes that influence diet changes, the advent of cooking with fire and it change in enamel for the more advanced hominins that didn't have to gnaw the tough fibers of meats and some plant matter.

Hundreds of tons of clay are annually dug out of a pit (Hammerschmeide) near Kaufbeuren in the Allgau, to make bricks. Böhme noticed that a black material was not lignite, as assumed by everyone, but "open-grained spongy structures" that she recognized as bones. She and a team discovered (through hard work) jawbone fragments and teeth from an unknown species. But..."paleontological finds do not enjoy protected status" in Bavaria. And Böhme's team was too small to extract much from the commercial operation on their own. So she started a "citizen dig" - crowd sourcing fifty plus volunteers over two years who analyzed 7,000 cubic feet of sediment, verifying "more than one hundred different vertebrates, including many species that had never been seen before - a treasure trove of fossils of the kind rarely found anywhere in the world."

Böhme, in Part 3 - The Cradle of Humanity: Africa or Europe, does call out in a subsection of one chapter "The Danger of Misinterpretation". She notes three challenges to determining if her or any fossil is a great ape or qualifies as an early hominin. Homoplasy invites mistakes in interpretation. Similarities obviously exist between two split species lines - diverse species might still interbreed; what constitutes their speciation? And the third is the obvious incomplete "fossil record."

Böhme carefully outlines her theory that African fauna came from Eurasian fauna. And the corresponding early humans in Africa came from Eurasian ancestors.

For my rare steak friends who I like to jab a fire-fearful ancestor Thag at, Böhme talks about the relatively small size Homo erectus teeth. (Teeth science again!) "Smaller teeth are a significant disadvantage for a creature whose diet consists overwhelmingly of tough raw meat, fibrous roots, and fruits protected by a hard rind." Richard Wrangham is convinced that Homo erectus had the ability to cook food.

Food that has been heated is also quicker and easier to digest and has more nutritional value than raw, and the amount of energy a person can extract from it increases enormously.

Researchers were able to identify a human bone from a sack of Denisovan bones and paleogeneticists determined that "Denny" was the daughter of a Neanderthal mother and Denisovan father, "the only fossil of a direct hybrid of two different types of humans ever found." show less

In 2019, Madelaine Böhme and colleagues discovered the bones of Danuvis guggenmosi, an ancestor of humans that did not fit in with the existing paradigm of evolutionary theory. This in itself is a fascinating discovery and is incredibly newsworthy however I do not think it merits an entire book.

To properly tell the story of D. guggenmosi or any ancestral primate requires a significant amount of background and exposition to bring the reader up to speed on paleontology and evolution. Böhme and her co-authors do an excellent job of this in making clear and succinct explanations for laypeople. The history of where D. guggenmosi was discovered and the classfication and subsequent study of these bones are told with infectious enthusiasm. show more Unfortunately after this the overall narrative of the book seems to fall flat on its face. There seemed to be a need to stretch out the length of the book so there are some odd standalone chapters such as pondering the development of the human hand or a deep dive into issues and controversies within the field of paleontology in European academic circles.

As a whole this is an excellent introduction to paleontology and an interesting overview of just how incomplete our understanding of human evolution is even up to present day. show less

In Ancient Bones Madelaine Bohme reviews analysis of current work in paleoanthropology, including her own work, to question the long-accepted theory of Africa as the original home of the human race. The bones of Ethiopian Lucy are 3.2 million years old. Bohme and her team in Germany found bones of a hominin millions of years older than the African finds. She evaluates other European and Asian discoveries of very early human ancestors for the first ⅔ of the book.
These hominins were able to walk upright and she discusses the changes necessary for feet, the placement of the head in relationship to the spine, the rib cage, the hands in all of these creatures. My only quibble with this part of the book (and it's a feature I particularly show more dislike in academics writing for a general audience)is her attempt at You Are There moments at the beginning of each section. Instead of engaging this reader, they feel like wasted paper.
On the other hand, the book came alive as she began to discuss the effects of climate change and the development of a Savannah belt on the evolution of humans. She traces the cause and effect of using fire to its making the development of smaller teeth possible, which makes greater intelligence and spoken language possible. She also gives a fascinating look at other human lines that developed and speculates as to why only Homo Sapiens (albeit with Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA in our genome depending on where we live) was the only species to survive.

Thank you to Early Reviewers for my copy of this book! show less

Human origins fascinate me, and I've read quite a few books on the subject. A very select few were about discoveries that completely changed the scientific status qu0, and this is one of them. It challenges the long-held notion that the earliest humans evolved in Africa with information from recent discoveries. The closest thing I can compare it with is Donald Johanson's LUCY, which also detailed a revolutionary (and still justly famous) discovery. Like that book, this one also does a good job of summarizing the discoveries and ideas that went before. The writing is lively and fast paced--at least as fast paced as a book this dense with information can be. If you haven't read a lot about early humans this would be a good, up to date show more book to read as it does an excellent job of presenting an overall summary of the field. show less

The origin of mankind in Africa has received general acceptance but some paleoanthropologists think our ancestors may have Eurasian origins. Böhme proposes Graecopithecus freybergi, found in Greece in 1944, as an early European hominin candidate. Most of the book is a wide overview of how paleoanthropologists work and how they interpret fossil remains such as the Australopithecus Lucy, various Homo genera, the Denisovans first found in Siberia, the Hobbit or Homo floresiensis of Indonesia and Neanderthals, of course. There isn't much information about Graecopithecus or why it should be considered ancestral to us.

Böhme is perhaps at her best when describing the ancient world that our distant ancestors may have known. She paints a vivid show more picture of the savannahs, ponds and forests and various creatures such as fierce bear-dogs, giant salamanders and “a large flying squirrel that looks like a magic carpet” as it glides from branch to branch. She also describes the Messinian salinity crisis when the Mediterranean Sea dried up and the effect that had on plant and animal life. How camels have adapted to desert life, such as reabsorbing moisture as they breathe, was an interesting detail although not germane to the subject of hominin origins.

Ancient Bones seems to be more a very general discussion of recent paleoanthropological puzzles rather than compelling evidence that any particular hypothesis is correct. New discoveries may support our current understanding, or more likely, further muddle the picture. There are some drawings and maps but it is a little difficult to discern details because they are all light grayscale and don’t have much contrast. There are endnotes and the finished book is indexed. show less