Re: questions about the descent of man

Thank you for your reply, Keith, as well as Moorad and David. I will
definintely look into the books mentioned!

Travis

>From: Keith Miller <kbmill@ksu.edu>
>To: "Travis Marler" <tmarler@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: questions about the descent of man
>Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 09:45:02 -0500
>
>Travis:
>>I have a lot of honest questions about the descent of man, but don't know
>>where to turn for answers. First of all, by what criteria do evolutionary
>>scientists differentiate between human- like species? ie- what
>>characteristics separate H. sapiens from H. erectus from Neanderthals,
>>etc... How were those criteria decided upon? Is the criteria valid for
>>separating human-like fossil remains into entirely different species? How
>>many fossil remains do we have of the accepted different species? How do
>>we date them? Among others...
>>
>>I know that these are questions that aren't going to be easily answered
>>in an email. ;) Each subject could probably have a multitude of books
>>written on it. But if anyone could provide some basic answers and then
>>maybe direct me to some good books on the subject, I'd really appreciate
>>it. :)
>
>I don't have the time to give you a detailed answer, but I can point you
>to a few useful resources. Firstly, I would highly recommend the book
>"The Fossil Trail: How we know what we think we know about human
>evolution" by Ian Tattersall (Oxford University Press, 1995). This is a
>very thorough and readable account of the history of physical anthropology
>and how we have come to our current place of understanding of human
>evolution. Another book that has really wonderful photographs of most of
>the important hominid fossil specimens is "From Lucy to Language" by
>Donald Johanson & Blake Edgar (Simon & Schuster, 1996). At the risk of
>appearing to be self promotional, I would also recommend two of the essays
>in my edited book "Perspectives on an Evolving Creation" (Wm B. Eerdmans,
>2003). Those essays are "Hominids in the Garden" by James Hurd, and
>"Finding Adam: The Genetics of Human Origins" by David Wilcox.
>
>All the best,
>
>Keith
>
>
>Keith B. Miller
>Research Assistant Professor
>Dept of Geology, Kansas State University
>Manhattan, KS 66506-3201
>785-532-2250
>http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/
>
Received on Thu Jun 1 13:25:38 2006