The incredible human journey - Alice Roberts

Alice Roberts has been travelling the world - from Ethiopian desert toMalay peninsula and from Russian steppes to Amazon basin - in order tounderstand the challenges that early humans faced as they tried tosettle continents. On her travels she has witnessed some of thedaunting and brutal challenges our ancestors had to face: mountains,deserts, oceans, changing climates, terrifying giant beasts andvolcanoes. But she discovers that perhaps the most serious threat ofall came from other humans. When our ancestors set out from Africathere were already two other species of human on the planet:Neanderthal in Europe and Homo erectusin Asia. Both (contrary to popular perception) were intelligent, adeptat making tools and weapons and were long adapted to theirenvironments. So, Alice asks, why did only Homo sapienssurvive?

Partdetective story, part travelogue, and drawing on the latest genetic andarchaeological discoveries, Alice examines how our ancestors evolvedphysically in response to these challenges, finding out how our colour,shape, size, diet, disease resistance and even athletic ability havebeen shaped by the range of environments that our ancestors had tosurvive. She also relates how astonishingly closely related we all are.

As a lecturer in Anatomy at Bristol University, Alice Robertsis eminently qualified to write this book. As a talented artist, she isperfectly qualified to illustrate it, and dotted throughout this livelybook are many of the sketches and photographs from her travels.