The Ape in the Tree: An Intellectual and Natural History of Proconsul (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780674016750)

This book offers a unique insider's perspective on the unfolding discovery of a crucial link in our evolution: Proconsul, a fossil ape named whimsically after a performing chimpanzee called Consul.

The Ape in the Tree is written in the voice of Alan Walker, whose involvement with Proconsul began when his graduate supervisor analyzed the tree-climbing adaptations in the arm and hand of this extinct creature. Today, Proconsul is the best-known fossil ape in the world.

The history of ideas is set against the vivid adventures of Walker's fossil-hunting expeditions in remote regions of Africa, where the team met with violent thunderstorms, dangerous wildlife, and people isolated from the Western world. Analysis of the thousands of new Proconsul specimens they recovered provides revealing glimpses of the life of this last common ancestor between apes and humans.

The attributes of Proconsul have profound implications for the very definition of humanness. This book speaks not only of an ape in a tree but also of the ape in our tree.

Author: Alan Walker,Pat Shipman
ISBN-10: 0674016750
ISBN-13: 9780674016750
Publisher: Belknap Press
Language: English
Published: 04/15/2005
Pages: 312
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.06lbs
Size: 8.46h x 5.86w x 1.04d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 03/01/2005 pg. 1123
Discover 12/01/2005 pg. 76