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Lowly Origin:

Where, When, and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up
Front Cover
5 Reviews
Princeton University Press, 2003 - Science - 396 pages
Our ability to walk on two legs is not only a characteristic human trait but one of the things that made us human in the first place. Once our ancestors could walk on two legs, they began to do many of the things that apes cannot do: cross wide open spaces, manipulate complex tools, communicate with new signal systems, and light fires. Titled after the last two words of Darwin's Descent of Man and written by a leading scholar of human evolution, Lowly Origin is the first book to explain the sources and consequences of bipedalism to a broad audience. Along the way, it accounts for recent fossil discoveries that show us a still incomplete but much bushier family tree than most of us learned about in school.Jonathan Kingdon uses the very latest findings from ecology, biogeography, and paleontology to build a new and up-to-date account of how four-legged apes became two-legged hominins. He describes what it took to get up onto two legs as well as the protracted consequences of that step--some of which led straight to modern humans and others to very different bipeds. This allows him to make sense of recently unearthed evidence suggesting that no fewer than twenty species of humans and hominins have lived and become extinct. Following the evolution of two-legged creatures from our earliest lowly forebears to the present, Kingdon concludes with future options for the last surviving biped.A major new narrative of human evolution, Lowly Origin is the best available account of what it meant--and what it means--to walk on two feet.

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Review: Lowly Origin

User Review  - Peter Andrews - Times Literary Supplement

Every so often . . . a new concept comes into being. In Lowly Origin, Jonathan Kingdon puts forward just such a new concept. . . . Lowly Origin is full of insights and displays the profound knowledge of African geography and ecology that is the hallmark of all Kingdon's work. Read full review

Review: Lowly Origin

User Review  - Donald Johanson - Los Angeles Times Book Review

Lowly Origin is brimming with information, insight, experience and speculation about how we became human. . . . [A] comprehensive and evocative rendition of who we are and how we fit in to the natural world. Read full review

All 5 reviews »

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Other editions - View all

Lowly Origin: Where, When, and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up
Lowly Origin: Where, When, and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up
Jonathan Kingdon
Limited preview - 2003
Lowly Origin: Where, When, and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up
Lowly Origin: Where, When, and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up
Jonathan Kingdon
No preview available - 2003
Lowly Origin: Where, When, And Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up
Lowly Origin: Where, When, And Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up
Jonathan Kingdon
No preview available - 2004

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References from web pages

JSTOR: Lowly Origin: Where, When, and Why Our Ancestors First Stood up
Lowly Origin: Where, When, and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up. Jonathan Kingdon. Princeton, nj: Princeton University Press, 2003, 396 pp. $35.00, cloth. ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0091-7710(200323)59%3A3%3C333%3ALOWWAW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2

Endeavour : A self-made hypothesis on hominid origins: Lowly ...
Lowly Origin: Where, When, and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up by Jonathan Kingdon. Princeton University Press, 2003. US$35.00 (pp. xx+396, hardback) ISBN ...
linkinghub.elsevier.com/ retrieve/ pii/ S016093270400002X

John Hawks Anthropology Weblog : Lowly origin of bipedalism :: the ...
Lowly origin: Where, when, and why our ancestors first stood up. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Langdon JH. 1997. ...
johnhawks.net/ weblog/ reviews/ early_hominids/ bipedalism/ kingdon_2003_lowly_origin.w

Lowly origin: Where, when, and why our ancestors first stood up
Book Reviews. Emerging Pathogens: Archaeology, Ecology. & Evolution of Infectious Disease. Edited. bycharlesgreenblattandmarkspigelman. xiv + 250 pp. ...
doi.wiley.com/ 10.1002/ ajhb.20034

Four legs bad, two legs good : Article : Nature
BOOK REVIEWED-Lowly Origin: Where, When, and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up. by Jonathan Kingdon. Princeton University Press: 2003. 408 pp. $35, £24.95 ...
www.nature.com/ nature/ journal/ v423/ n6942/ full/ 423804a.html

Book Reivew
Kamla-Raj 2005. J. Hum, Ecol., 17(2): 159-160 (2005). Book Reivew. Lowly Origin: Where, When and Why Our. Ancestors First Stood Up. Jonathan Kingdon, ...
www.krepublishers.com/ 02-Journals/ JHE/ JHE-17-0-000-000-2005-Web/ JHE-17-2-085-160-2005-Abst-PDF/ JHE-17-2-159-160-2005...

Sample Chapter for Kingdon, J.: Lowly Origin: Where, When, and Why ...
Sample Chapter for Lowly Origin: Where, When, and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up by Kingdon, J., published by Princeton University Press.
press.princeton.edu/ chapters/ s7488.html

Oxbow Books - Lowly Origin: Where, When and Why our Ancestors ...
Lowly Origin: Where, When and Why our Ancestors First Stood Up. by Jonathan Kingdon. The dominant theme of this book is bipedality, or walking upright on ...
www.oxbowbooks.com/ bookinfo.cfm/ ID/ 36221?/ Location/ Oxbow

Lowly Origin: Where, When and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up ...
Lowly Origin: Where, When and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up - Book Review from Science News in Reference provided free by Find Articles.
findarticles.com/ p/ articles/ mi_m1200/ is_11_164/ ai_108549664

On Point : Lowly Origin - Lowly Origin
Jonathan Kingdon, zoologist, artist, evolution expert and author of the new book, "Lowly Origin: Where, When, and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up" ...
www.onpointradio.org/ shows/ 2003/ 09/ 20030918_b_main.asp

About the author (2003)

Jonathan Kingdon was born in Tanganyika, now Tanzania, and educated at Makerere University, Uganda. He is presently affiliated with the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Lowly Origin
TitleLowly Origin: Where, When, and Why Our Ancestors First Stood Up
AuthorJonathan Kingdon
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherPrinceton University Press, 2003
ISBN0691050864, 9780691050867
Length396 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Science / Life Sciences / Biology
Science / Life Sciences / Evolution
Science / Life Sciences / Human Anatomy & Physiology
Science / Paleontology
Social Science / Anthropology / General
Social Science / Anthropology / Physical
  
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