Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators, and Human Evolution, Expanded Edition

Abstract

This astonishing new interpretation of fossil and living primates reveals that humans evolved not as hunters, but as hunted prey Although 'Man the Hunter' is a popular description of our ancestry, the central importance of hunting is firmly fixed only in the archaeological record of relatively recent human history. Man the Hunted argues that primates, including the earliest members of the human family, have evolved not as hunters but as the prey of any number of predators, including wild cats and dogs, hyenas, snakes, crocodiles, and even birds of prey. Eyewitness accounts, data collected by the authors, and the published reports of naturalists establish the astonishing extent to which living monkeys, lemurs, apes, and even humans fall victim to a wide variety of predators, some of which even specialize in the consumption of primates. Additionally, the fossil record demonstrates that primates have been prey for millions of years, a fact that necessarily shaped the evolution of our earliest ancestors in body and behaviour.

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