The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack
And Other Cautionary Tales from Human Evolution
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The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack
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Narrated by:
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Tom Perkins
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By:
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Ian Tattersall
About this listen
In his new book, The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack, human paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall argues that a long tradition of "human exceptionalism" in paleoanthropology has distorted the picture of human evolution. Drawing partly on his own career - from young scientist in awe of his elders to crotchety elder statesman - Tattersall offers an idiosyncratic look at the competitive world of paleoanthropology, beginning with Charles Darwin 150 years ago, continuing through the Leakey dynasty in Africa, and concluding with the latest astonishing findings in the Caucasus. The book's title refers to the 1856 discovery of a clearly very old skull cap in Germany's Neander Valley. The possessor had a brain as large as a modern human but a heavy, low braincase with a prominent brow ridge. Scientists tried hard to explain away the inconvenient possibility that this was not actually our direct relative. One extreme interpretation suggested that the preserved leg bones were curved by both rickets and by a life on horseback. The pain of the unfortunate individual's affliction had caused him to chronically furrow his brow in agony, leading to the excessive development of bone above the eye sockets. The subsequent history of human evolutionary studies is full of similarly fanciful interpretations.
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 352
In recent years, the common perception of the Neanderthals has been transformed, thanks to new discoveries and paradigm-shattering scientific innovations. It turns out that the Neanderthals' behavior was surprisingly modern: they buried the dead, cared for the sick, hunted large animals in their prime, harvested seafood, and communicated with spoken language. Meanwhile, advances in DNA technologies are compelling us to reassess the Neanderthals' place in our own past.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating Subject... Soporific Reader
- By Andrew E. Yarosh on 11-21-17
By: Dimitra Papagianni, and others
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Written in Stone
- Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature
- By: Brian Switek
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 308
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 258
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 254
Spectacular fossil finds make today's headlines; new technology unlocks secrets of skeletons unearthed 100 years ago. Still, evolution is often poorly represented by the media and misunderstood by the public. A potent antidote to pseudoscience, Written in Stone is an engrossing history of evolutionary discovery for anyone who has marveled at the variety and richness of life.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very good but has some weaknesses
- By Anonymous User on 06-23-19
By: Brian Switek
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Paleontology
- A Brief History of Life
- By: Ian Tattersall
- Narrated by: Brett Barry
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 112
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4 out of 5 stars 72
Ian Tattersall, a highly esteemed figure in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, and paleontology, leads a fascinating tour of the history of life and the evolution of human beings. Starting at the very beginning, Tattersall examines patterns of change in the biosphere over time, and the correlations of biological events with physical changes in the Earth's environment.
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5 out of 5 stars
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great summary of where we are with understanding
- By david on 06-25-11
By: Ian Tattersall
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Evolution
- What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters: Adapted for Audio
- By: Donald R. Prothero
- Narrated by: John Bishop
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 86
Over the past 20 years, paleontologists have made tremendous fossil discoveries, including fossils that mark the growth of whales, manatees, and seals from land mammals and the origins of elephants, horses, and rhinos. Today there exists an amazing diversity of fossil humans, suggesting we walked upright long before we acquired large brains, and new evidence from molecules that enable scientists to decipher the tree of life as never before.
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2 out of 5 stars
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NOT WORTH THE PRICE OF ADDMISSION
- By CRAIG on 12-25-14
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Born in Africa
- The Quest for the Origins of Human Life
- By: Martin Meredith
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 54
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
In Born in Africa, Martin Meredith follows the trail of discoveries about human origins made by scientists over the last hundred years, recounting their intense rivalry, personal feuds, and fierce controversies, as well as their feats of skill and endurance. The results have been momentous. Scientists have identified more than 20 species of extinct humans. They have firmly established Africa as the birthplace not only of humankind but also of modern humans.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Brief History of Paleoanthropology
- By Jeff Harris on 05-06-13
By: Martin Meredith
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The World Before Us
- The New Science Behind Our Human Origins
- By: Tom Higham
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 147
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 130
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 131
A fascinating investigation of the origin of humans based on incredible new discoveries and advanced scientific technology.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderfully Accessible
- By Deborah N on 11-02-21
By: Tom Higham
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How to Build a Dinosaur
- Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever
- By: Jack Horner, James Gorman
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 103
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
In movies, in novels, in comic strips, and on television, we've all seen dinosaurs - or at least somebody's educated guess of what they would look like. But what if it were possible to build, or grow, a real dinosaur without finding ancient DNA? Jack Horner, the scientist who advised Steven Spielberg on the blockbuster film Jurassic Park and a pioneer in bringing paleontology into the 21st century, teams up with the editor of the New York Times's Science Times section to reveal exactly what's in store.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good book but misplaced title
- By Robert on 06-19-15
By: Jack Horner, and others
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Before the Dawn
- Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
- By: Nicholas Wade
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 932
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 522
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 523
Just in the last three years a flood of new scientific findings, driven by revelations discovered in the human genome, has provided compelling new answers to many long-standing mysteries about our most ancient ancestors, the people who first evolved in Africa and then went on to colonize the whole world. Nicholas Wade weaves this host of news-making findings together for the first time into an intriguing new history of the human story before the dawn of civilization.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing information
- By Albert on 06-15-07
By: Nicholas Wade
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First Peoples in a New World
- Colonizing Ice Age America
- By: David J. Meltzer
- Narrated by: Christopher Prince
- Length: 11 hrs
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 179
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 152
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 151
More than 12,000 years ago, in one of the greatest triumphs of prehistory, humans colonized North America, a continent that was then truly a new world. Just when and how they did so has been one of the most perplexing and controversial questions in archaeology.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Last Gasp of American Anthropological Orthodoxy
- By Thomas66 on 01-05-17
By: David J. Meltzer
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Evolution
- The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory
- By: Edward J. Larson
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 132
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
Edward J. Larson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and eminent science historian. This marvelously readable, yet sumptuously erudite work traces the development of the scientific theory of evolution. From Darwin's essential trip to the Galápagos, to the most contemporary studies in sociobiology, this work takes listeners both into the field and laboratories of the world's greatest evolutionary scientists, and shows how the theory of evolution has itself evolved.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Excellent History!
- By Bradly D. Elder on 08-13-07
By: Edward J. Larson
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America Before
- The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization
- By: Graham Hancock
- Narrated by: Graham Hancock
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,102
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,557
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,536
Stunning new archaeological discoveries in North America together with new genetic evidence have launched a revolution in our understanding of the remote past of our species and of the origins of civilization. Graham Hancock, the internationally best-selling author has been overwhelmingly vindicated by recent discoveries. America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization is a mind-dilating exploration of the mystery of ancient civilizations, amazing archaeological discoveries, and profound implications for how we lead our lives today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fun to Think About
- By Amazon Customer on 04-26-19
By: Graham Hancock
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Why Evolution Is True
- By: Jerry A. Coyne
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,925
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,441
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,437
Why evolution is more than just a theory: it is a fact. In all the current highly publicized debates about creationism and its descendant "intelligent design", there is an element of the controversy that is rarely mentioned: the evidence, the empirical truth of evolution by natural selection.
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5 out of 5 stars
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As great as everyone says it is
- By Joseph on 12-01-10
By: Jerry A. Coyne
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Neanderthal Man
- In Search of Lost Genomes
- By: Svante Pääbo
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 776
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 687
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Story4 out of 5 stars 691
A preeminent geneticist hunts the Neanderthal genome to answer the biggest question of them all: what does it mean to be human? What can we learn from the genes of our closest evolutionary relatives? Neanderthal Man tells the story of geneticist Svante Pbo’s mission to answer that question, beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in his sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2009.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent science tale
- By Neuron on 01-19-15
By: Svante Pääbo
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Prehistory
- Making of the Human Mind
- By: Colin Renfrew
- Narrated by: Robert Ian MacKenzie
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 212
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 147
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Story4 out of 5 stars 146
A giant of archaeology, Colin Renfrew has immeasurably improved our understanding of human history. In this passionately argued work, he offers a concise summary of prehistory - human existence that predates the development of written records - while challenging the very definition of prehistory itself.
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5 out of 5 stars
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not for the intellectually challenged
- By Anthony on 07-14-10
By: Colin Renfrew
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A Pocket History of Human Evolution
- How We Became Sapiens
- By: Silvana Condemi, Francois Savatier
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
A Pocket History of Human Evolution brings us up-to-date on the exploits of all our ancient relatives. Paleoanthropologist Silvana Condemi and science journalist François Savatier consider what accelerated our evolution: Was it tools, our "large" brains, language, empathy, or something else entirely? And why are we the sole survivors among many early bipedal humans? Their conclusions reveal the various ways ancient humans live on today - from gossip as modern "grooming" to our gendered division of labor - and what the future might hold for our strange and unique species.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Well presented and very informative.
- By Jim Griggs on 11-11-21
By: Silvana Condemi, and others
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The Ancestor's Tale
- A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 569
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 495
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 487
In The Ancestor's Tale, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey, Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and riveting in its telling.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Please do an unabridged version!
- By MovieExpertise on 09-29-16
By: Richard Dawkins
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The Creative Spark
- How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional
- By: Agustín Fuentes
- Narrated by: Agustín Fuentes
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 150
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 127
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 125
In the tradition of Jared Diamond's million-copy-selling classic Guns, Germs, and Steel, a bold new synthesis of paleontology, archaeology, genetics, and anthropology that overturns misconceptions about race, war and peace, and human nature itself, answering an age-old question: What made humans so exceptional among all the species on Earth? Creativity. It is the secret of what makes humans special, hiding in plain sight.
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4 out of 5 stars
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What's new?
- By Mark on 05-02-17
By: Agustín Fuentes
What listeners say about The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- victor
- 05-18-16
only useful for people with evolutionary knowledge
What made the experience of listening to The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack the most enjoyable?
the way he goes explains/draws a picture of the fossils he is talking about. it might not be 100% but the picture he draws using his 40+ years of experience is very insightful
If you’ve listened to books by Ian Tattersall before, how does this one compare?
no
What about Tom Perkins’s performance did you like?
favorite audio voice!
What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?
toothless north Caucasus fossil
Any additional comments?
an additional book(recommendation) that could explain more of the chemistry or geological differences in the periods of time he is talking about,
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Astra
- 02-26-16
its Tattersall's style, what else can I say.
silly fun and interesting for people totally sold to this field. I will buy more.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Ian K O'Malley
- 09-25-18
a wonderful overview of Paleoanthropology
Ian Tattersall is a great scientist and a great reviewer of facts and their importance.. I loved this book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- William hartel
- 04-11-19
Loved it
Great narration. Great book - highly recommended by a hard core science nerd
(Audible could update their “intro”’and “out/tro”)
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