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    The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction
    The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction
    The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction
    Audiobook7 hours

    The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction

    Written by Pat Shipman

    Narrated by Donna Postel

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Approximately 200,000 years ago, as modern humans began to radiate out from their evolutionary birthplace in Africa, Neanderthals were already thriving in Europe—descendants of a much earlier migration of the African genus Homo. But when modern humans eventually made their way to Europe 45,000 years ago, Neanderthals suddenly vanished. Ever since the first Neanderthal bones were identified in 1856, scientists have been vexed by the question, why did modern humans survive while their evolutionary cousins went extinct?


    The Invaders musters compelling evidence to show that the major factor in the Neanderthals' demise was direct competition with newly arriving humans. Drawing on insights from the field of invasion biology, Pat Shipman traces the devastating impact of a growing human population: reduction of Neanderthals' geographic range, isolation into small groups, and loss of genetic diversity.



    But modern humans were not the only invaders who competed with Neanderthals for big game. Shipman reveals fascinating confirmation of humans' partnership with the first domesticated wolf-dogs soon after Neanderthals first began to disappear. This alliance between two predator species, she hypothesizes, made possible an unprecedented degree of success in hunting large Ice Age mammals—a distinct and ultimately decisive advantage for humans over Neanderthals at a time when climate change made both groups vulnerable.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMay 19, 2015
    ISBN9781494583095
    The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction
    Author

    Pat Shipman

    Pat Shipman is the author of eight previous books, including The Man Who Found the Missing Link and Taking Wing, which won the Phi Beta Kappa Prize for science and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and named a New York Times Notable Book for 1998. Her numerous awards and honors include the 1996 Rhone-Poulenc Prize for The Wisdom of the Bones (written with Alan Walker). Her most recent book is To the Heart of the Nile: Lady Florence Baker and the Exploration of Central Africa. She is currently an adjunct professor of anthropology at Pennsylvania State University and lives in State College, Pennsylvania.

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    Reviews for The Invaders

    4/5

    48 ratings5 reviews

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    • 2/5
      The tone is agressive. I don t want to get opions rammed down my throat. I want information.
    • 4/5
      The author undertakes to detail ways in which modern humans, together with their dogs, were the primary reason for extinction of the Neandertals. She doesn't pretend this is mainstream thought; she explains the reasons why she believes the current mainstream theory of assimilation and/or climate change is inaccurate. She doesn't claim modern humans slayed the Neandertals (or at least, not wholesale; she did present some information of wounds consistent with human tools); instead, she believes they out competed the Neandertals, presenting evidence that they used the same food sources. She also discusses the redating project on some of the old radiometric dates, using techniques unknown at the time those dates were first established to get a more calibrated date, and places the date of extinction somewhat earlier than current thinking. It was well written, interesting, and not too long. Did she convince me? I withhold judgment. Not being a paleontologist, I must either take it at face value that she is giving me the most accurate information, or wait until I can verify or dismiss from other reputable sources. As a scientist, I choose the second path. Well worth a read as long as you are able to maintain some level of doubt until confirmation is achieved.
    • 4/5
      This book is packed with fascinating information, and it's well worth reading. The hypothesis in Shipman's subtitle seems a little shaky: near the end of Chapter 13: "Why Dogs," Shipman says, "Unless future finds show wolf-dogs in even earlier sites, Neanderthals were extinct by the time wolf-dogs appeared." In fact, we're not sure that early modern humans and Neanderthals had much to do with one another. Then entry of a new apex predator may have made the Neaderthals situation more difficult, even if there was no direct conflict.

      Shipman is trying to do two things in this book, and I wish she hadn't. In addition to examining the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans, she is arguing that we are the invasive species to end all other species. I can't argue with that at this time, but the early modern humans were doing what all species try to do: expand their range. I don't think that

      And yes, many species lose in the face of the competition. Neanderthals and modern humans alike probably eradicated earlier hominins as well. Equating modern humans living 40,000 years ago with us, even if we are the same species, is a gross anachronism. The problem is that we have learned to leap over the obstacles that keep species confined to a limited area, and we've out-competed just about every species for resources. We've learned to make things like plastics that natural processes can't deal with.
      Now we have the insight and knowledge to understand that, even if we can't get all our species to act wisely. Archeology has shown that a number of sophisticated societies fell when they over-exploited their resources, and our civilization may not last either.

      Even with these criticisms, that is a heavily researched and fascinating book. I was gripped once I got into it.
    • 5/5
      excellent presentation of a theory of the domestication of the first animal, the wolf, by modern humans (us), and the extinction of Neanderthals.
    • 4/5
      The Invaders is written by a scientist and he presents his theory how Neanderthals, and many other species, went extinct. The subtitle and beautiful cover art give it away but there is much more to the book. The theory is only described in about the last 15%, most of the book is background information on what and how we know about Neanderthals and humans in Europe in the period in question, from about 50,000bp to 20,000bp. The writing can be technical, but not impossible and is made up for by the writers enthusiasm and deep thinking. I really did feel transported back in time and part of a real scientific debate on the cutting edge.