Exploring Biological Anthropology: The Essentials, 4th edition

Published by Pearson (May 1, 2019) © 2017

  • Craig Stanford University of Southern California
  • John S. Allen
  • Susan C. Anton New York University
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Present a concise overview of biological anthropology, from early foundations to recent innovationsREVEL for Exploring Biological Anthropology: The Essentials combines concise coverage of the foundations of the field with modern innovations and discoveries, helping students understand, and get excited about, the discipline. Because the authors conduct research in three of the main areas of biological anthropology — the human fossil record (Susan Antón), primate behavior and ecology (Craig Stanford), and human biology and the brain (John Allen) — they offer a specialist approach that engages students and gives them everything they need to master the subject. REVEL for the Fourth Edition continues to present traditional physical anthropology within a modern Darwinian framework, and includes coverage of contemporary discoveries to highlight the ever-increasing body of knowledge in biological anthropology.
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Dynamic content matched to the way today's students read, think, and learn brings content to life
  • Integrated within the narrative, interactives and videos empower students to engage with concepts and take an active role in learning. REVEL's unique presentation of media as an intrinsic part of course content brings the hallmark features of Pearson's bestselling titles to life. REVEL's media interactives have been designed to be completed quickly, and its videos are brief, so students stay focused and on task.
  • Located throughout REVEL, quizzing affords students opportunities to check their understanding at regular intervals before moving on.
  • REVEL’s integrated writing tools enable educators to introduce writing — among the best ways to foster and assess critical thinking — into the course without significantly impacting their grading burden. Self-paced Journaling Prompts throughout the narrative encourage students to express their thoughts without breaking stride in their reading. Assignable Shared Writing Activities direct students to share written responses with classmates, fostering peer discussion.
  • REVEL’s fully mobile learning experience enables students to read and interact with course material on the devices they use, anywhere and anytime. Responsive design allows students to access REVEL on their tablet devices and smart phones, with content displayed clearly in both portrait and landscape view.
  • Highlighting, note taking, and a glossary let students read and study however they like. Educators can add notes for students, too, including reminders or study tips.

Superior assignability and tracking tools help educators make sure students are completing their reading and understanding core concepts
  • REVEL’s assignment calendar allows educators to indicate precisely which readings must be completed on which dates. This clear, detailed schedule helps students stay on task by eliminating any ambiguity as to which material will be covered during each class. And when students know what is expected of them, they're better motivated to keep up.
  • REVEL’s performance dashboard lets educators monitor class assignment completion as well as individual student achievement. It offers actionable information that helps educators intersect with their students in meaningful ways, such as points earned on quizzes and tests and time on task. Of particular note, the trending column reveals whether students' grades are improving or declining – which helps educators identify students who might need help to stay on track.

Reader-friendly pedagogical tools in each chapter guide students through the course
  • NEW! Learning objectives, at the start of each chapter and tied to the main chapter headings, help students identify the main ideas on which to focus as they read. Used in conjunction with the summary and critical-thinking questions at the end of each chapter, the learning objectives provide a road map to the chapter’s important concepts and key ideas.
  • Brief chapter-opening vignettes bring the main topic of the chapter to life. These vignettes help students get a feel for the chapter topics and serve as an enjoyable and informative reflection on the text material.
  • NEW! Fresh chapter-opening vignettes in chapters 3, 4, 7, 9, and 14 of the fourth edition highlight current trends as well as foundational principles in the field. 
  • A marginal glossary defines new terms as students encounter them.  A complete glossary at the end of the text collects definitions of all key terms.
  • A bulleted summary at the end of each chapter enables students to review important concepts.
  • Critical-thinking questions at the close of each chapter encourage students to consider a key topic in depth, stimulating class discussion.
  • A bibliography at the end of the text lists all the references used and cited in the text.
Engaging features bring biological anthropology to life
  • Insights and Advances boxes in every chapter expand on key material and draw students’ attention to current events connected to the field, to emerging debates, or sometimes just to fascinating side stories.
    • NEW! Chapter 6 includes an Insights and Advances box on populations, genetics, and cultural history
    • NEW! Chapter 10 includes an Insights and Advances box on the locomotion of the last common ancestor of apes and humans
    • NEW! Chapter 12 includes an Insights and Advances box on the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa
    • NEW! Chapter 15 includes an Insights and Advances box on early menarche and later health
    • UPDATED! Additional Insights and Advances boxes in Chapters 7, 9, 10, and 13 have been substantially updated to include new perspectives and findings.
  • Innovations boxes throughout the text provide impactful visual presentations of new, burgeoning areas of research, helping students to develop an appreciation for the excitement of discovery. The following Innovations boxes have been updated for the fourth edition:
    • UPDATED! Chapter 3’s Innovations box: DNA Barcoding
    • UPDATED! Chapter 4’s Innovations box: A New Genetic Era
    • UPDATED! Chapter 8’s Innovations box: Culture in Nonhuman Primates
    • UPDATED! Chapter 9’s Innovations box: Time in a Bottle
    • UPDATED! Chapter 10’s Innovations box: Dikika and Development
    • UPDATED! Chapter 11’s Innovations box: What’s Size Got to Do with It?
    • UPDATED! Chapter 12’s Innovations box: Neandertal Genes
    • UPDATED! Chapter 13’s Innovations box: Symbolism and Human Evolution
    • UPDATED! Chapter 14’s Innovations box: Music, the Brain, and Evolution
    • UPDATED! Chapter 15’s Innovations box: Ancestry Genetics
An outstanding visual program boosts student engagement and understanding
  • UPDATED! The publisher and authors have worked together to provide the best possible photos and drawings of every topic covered in the book. Most of the photographs of living primates, fossils, and fossil sites were taken by one of the authors or were contributed by other biological anthropologists—and many of these have been updated and enhanced in this edition. The fourth edition includes some of the finest images available of everything from molecular genetics to stone tools.
  • Many of the anatomical illustrations especially prepared for this text by medical illustrator Joanna Wallington have been retained in the fourth edition. Exceptionally detailed and anatomical accurate, these drawings enhance student insight into the morphological features of importance in human evolution.  
  • UPDATED! Thoroughly revised illustrative timelines in Chapters 9, 11, 12, and 13 reflect recent discoveries of new sites, as well as substantially revised age estimates of known sites.
  • The text’s compelling map program was created specifically for Biological Anthropology by Dorling Kindersley, a leading publisher of atlases for both the educational and consumer markets. The text’s maps depict the geography of everything from the distribution of living primates in the world today to the locations of the continents in the distant past.
  • UPDATED! Two-page visually rich evolutionary features—appearing in a number of chapters, especially in Part IV—provide a snapshot of evolutionary development through time. These features enable students to easily grasp evolutionary changes through our vast sweep of time in greater detail. For the fourth edition, the evolutionary features have been updated with new photo imagery and have been substantially revised to reflect the latest age estimates for fossil localities.
I. Highlights of New and Updated Content
Dynamic content matched to the way today's students read, think, and learn brings content to life
  • Integrated within the narrative, interactives and videos empower students to engage with concepts and take an active role in learning. REVEL's unique presentation of media as an intrinsic part of course content brings the hallmark features of Pearson's bestselling titles to life. REVEL's media interactives have been designed to be completed quickly, and its videos are brief, so students stay focused and on task.
  • Located throughout REVEL, quizzing affords students opportunities to check their understanding at regular intervals before moving on.
  • REVEL’s integrated writing tools enable educators to introduce writing – among the best ways to foster and assess critical thinking – into the course without significantly impacting their grading burden. Self-paced Journaling Prompts throughout the narrative encourage students to express their thoughts without breaking stride in their reading. Assignable Shared Writing Activities direct students to share written responses with classmates, fostering peer discussion.
  • REVEL’s fully mobile learning experience enables students to read and interact with course material on the devices they use, anywhere and anytime. Responsive design allows students to access REVEL on their tablet devices and smart phones, with content displayed clearly in both portrait and landscape view.
  • Highlighting, note taking, and a glossary let students read and study however they like. Educators can add notes for students, too, including reminders or study tips.
Superior assignability and tracking tools help educators make sure students are completing their reading and understanding core concepts
  • REVEL’s assignment calendar allows educators to indicate precisely which readings must be completed on which dates. This clear, detailed schedule helps students stay on task by eliminating any ambiguity as to which material will be covered during each class. And when students know what is expected of them, they're better motivated to keep up.
  • REVEL’s performance dashboard lets educators monitor class assignment completion as well as individual student achievement. It offers actionable information that helps educators intersect with their students in meaningful ways, such as points earned on quizzes and tests and time on task. Of particular note, the trending column reveals whether students' grades are improving or declining — which helps educators identify students who might need help to stay on track.
Reader-friendly pedagogical tools in each chapter guide students through the course
  • Learning objectives, at the start of each chapter and tied to the main chapter headings, help students identify the main ideas on which to focus as they read. Used in conjunction with the summary and critical-thinking questions at the end of each chapter, the learning objectives provide a road map to the chapter’s important concepts and key ideas.
  • Fresh chapter-opening vignettes in chapters 3, 4, 7, 9, and 14 of the fourth edition highlight current trends as well as foundational principles in the field. 
Engaging features bring biological anthropology to life
  • Insights and Advances boxes in every chapter expand on key material and draw students’ attention to current events connected to the field, to emerging debates, or sometimes just to fascinating side stories.
    • Chapter 6 includes a new Insights and Advances box on populations, genetics, and cultural history
    • Chapter 10 includes a new Insights and Advances box on the locomotion of the last common ancestor of apes and humans
    • Chapter 12 includes a new Insights and Advances box on the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa
    • Chapter 15 includes a new Insights and Advances box on early menarche and later health
    • UPDATED! Additional Insights and Advances boxes in Chapters 7, 9, 10, and 13 have been substantially updated to include new perspectives and findings.
  • Innovations boxes throughout the text provide impactful visual presentations of new, burgeoning areas of research, helping students to develop an appreciation for the excitement of discovery. The following Innovations boxes have been updated for the fourth edition:
    • UPDATED! Chapter 3’s Innovations box: DNA Barcoding
    • UPDATED! Chapter 4’s Innovations box: A New Genetic Era
    • UPDATED! Chapter 8’s Innovations box: Culture in Nonhuman Primates
    • UPDATED! Chapter 9’s Innovations box: Time in a Bottle
    • UPDATED! Chapter 10’s Innovations box: Dikika and Development
    • UPDATED! Chapter 11’s Innovations box: What’s Size Got to Do with It?
    • UPDATED! Chapter 12’s Innovations box: Neandertal Genes
    • UPDATED! Chapter 13’s Innovations box: Symbolism and Human Evolution
    • UPDATED! Chapter 14’s Innovations box: Music, the Brain, and Evolution
    • UPDATED! Chapter 15’s Innovations box: Ancestry Genetics
An outstanding visual program boosts student engagement and understanding
  • UPDATED! The publisher and authors have worked together to provide the best possible photos and drawings of every topic covered in the book. Most of the photographs of living primates, fossils, and fossil sites were taken by one of the authors or were contributed by other biological anthropologists–and many of these have been updated and enhanced in this edition. The fourth edition includes some of the finest images available of everything from molecular genetics to stone tools.
  • UPDATED! Thoroughly revised illustrative timelines in Chapters 9, 11, 12, and 13 reflect recent discoveries of new sites, as well as substantially revised age estimates of known sites.
  • UPDATED! Two-page visually rich evolutionary features–appearing in a number of chapters, especially in Part IV–provide a snapshot of evolutionary development through time. These features enable students to easily grasp evolutionary changes through our vast sweep of time in greater detail. For the fourth edition, the evolutionary features have been updated with new photo imagery and have been substantially revised to reflect the latest age estimates for fossil localities.

II. Chapter-by-Chapter Changes
  • Chapter 9 provides new art and discussion surrounding the role and relationships of Miocene hominoids
  • Chapter 10 introduces newly named species A. deriyemeda and disuccses new science surrounding the diet of robust australopithecines and new ages of the little foot A. africanus skeleton
  • Chapter 11 introduces the new fossils that push the origin of the genus Homo deeper in time, provides new sections on H. habilis and H. rudolfensis, and dis-cusses new stone tools that push stone tool manufacture back past 3 million years ago.
  • Chapter 12 provides new discussion of the role of archaic H. sapiens in the origin of Neandertals and Denisovans and discusses new ancient DNA results that show evidence of a Neandertal contribution to the fossil modern human genome.
  • Chapter 13 presents new fossil and genetic evidence related to the origin of mod-ern humans as well as new finds that illuminate our understanding of the Peopling of the New World.

PART I: FOUNDATIONS
1. What Is Biological Anthropology?
2. Origins of Evolutionary Thought

PART II: MECHANISMS OF EVOLUTION
3. Genetics: Cells and Molecules
4. Genetics: From Genotype to Phenotype
5. The Forces of Evolution and the Formation of Species
6. Human Variation: Evolution, Adaptation, and Adaptability

PART III: PRIMATES
7. The Primates
8. Primate Behavior

PART IV: THE FOSSIL RECORD
9. Geology and Primate Origins
10. Early Hominins and Australopithecus
11. Rise of the Genus Homo
12. Archaic Homo sapiens and Neandertals
13. The Emergence, Dispersal, and Bioarchaeology of Homo sapiens

PART V: BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR OF MODERN HUMANS
14. Evolution of the Brain and Behavior
15. Biomedical and Forensic Anthropology

Craig Stanford is a professor of anthropology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California, where he also co-directs the Jane Goodall Research Center. He has conducted field research on primate behavior in south Asia, Latin America, and East Africa. He is well known for his long-term studies of meat-eating among wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania, and of the relationship between mountain gorillas and chimpanzees in the Impenetrable Forest of Uganda. He has authored or coauthored more than 130 scientific publications. Craig has received USC's highest teaching awards for his introductory biological anthropology course. In addition, he has published fifteen books on primates, animal behavior and human origins, including Beautiful Minds (2008) and Planet Without Apes (2012). He and his wife, Erin Moore, a cultural anthropologist at USC, live in South Pasadena, California, and have three children.

John Allen is a research scientist in the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center and the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California. He is also Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology, Indiana University. Previously, he was a neuroscience researcher at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, for several years. His primary research interests are the evolution of the human brain and behavior, and behavioral disease. He also has research experience in molecular genetics, nutritional anthropology, and the history of anthropology. He has conducted fieldwork in Japan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Palau. He has received university awards for teaching introductory courses in biological anthropology both as a graduate student instructor at the University of California and as a faculty member at the University of Auckland. In addition to Biological Anthropology, he is also the author of Medical Anthropology: A Biocultural Approach (with Andrea S. Wiley; second edition, 2013), The Lives of the Brain: Human Evolution and the Organ of Mind (2009), The Omnivorous Mind: Our Evolving Relationship with Food (2012), and Home: How Habitat Made Us Human (2015). John and his wife, Stephanie Sheffield, have two sons, Reid and Perry.

Susan Antón is a professor in the Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology at New York University, where she also directs the M.A. program in Human Skeletal Biology. Her field research concerns the evolution of genus Homo in Indonesia and human impact on island ecosystems in the South Pacific. She is best known for her research on H. erectus in Kenya and Indonesia, for which she was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is the President of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists and past editor of the Journal of Human Evolution. She received awards for teaching as a graduate student instructor of introductory physical anthropology and anatomy at the University of California, was Teacher of the Year while at the University of Florida, and received a Golden Dozen teaching award and the Distinguished Teaching Medal from NYU. She has been twice elected to Who's Who Among America's Teachers. Susan and her husband, Carl Swisher, a geochronologist, raise Anatolian shepherd dogs.

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