Ardipithecus kadabba

"The late F. Clark Howell had a vision of paleoanthropology as a fully integrated set of many scientific disciplines. This meticulously documented work is the first in a series that fulfills his vision. It is a magisterial synthesis of important early hominid fossils and their contemporaneous mammals placed in regionally dated stratigraphic sequences and reconstructed paleoenvironments. It is enhanced by images of sites and moments of discovery that are usually left to popular articles and that will give the reader a glimpse of the rigors of field work in a remote region of Africa."—Alan Walker, Pennsylvania State University

"This carefully planned and creatively crafted book is a record of a previously little-known niche of Africa's past. It recounts the tale of more than three thousand fossils, including twenty hominid specimens representing the new ancestral species Ardipithecus kadabba and their location in space, time and environment. Together they paint a picture of Africa in the late Miocene, of five to six million years ago. It was a part of northeast Africa, the Middle Awash of Ethiopia, at a time when it was rent by volcanoes and rifting. From this tectonically ravaged past, one marvels at such beauteous byproducts as this book reveals. To do justice to Ethiopia's surprises needs an exceptional book. This volume is worthy of the challenge: it is a model of its kind and will be hard to surpass. Happily, this is the first great volume on such matters to be edited by two sons of Africa, Doctors Haile-Selassie and WoldeGabriel, with a cast of twenty-five contributors from eight countries."—Phillip V. Tobias, F.R.S., For.M.NAS, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

"Here we have the life and times of Ardipithecus kadabba, the intriguing hominin lying near the divergence of the human lineage from that of the African Great Apes. Meticulously put together and rigorously documented, this book illustrates the intrinsic value of the best monographic publications of its kind. It provides rich, detailed information concerning A. kadabba, the other creatures that populated the eastern African landscape in the late Miocene, and their geological and paleoenvironmental surroundings. Synthesizing these data into an illuminating picture of one of our very earliest plausible ancestors, situated in its temporal and environmental context, the book is valuable not just for paleoanthropologists, but for all biologists interested in the ancient fauna of this great region of the world, its history and paleobiogeography."—Andrew Hill, Yale University