Includes bibliographical references.

Contents: Introduction / Donald C. Johanson -- The early history of primates before the apes / Herbert Thomas -- Hominoid primates of the Miocene and the origin of modern Hominidae / Louis de Bonis -- Hominidae and environment / Yves Coppens -- Australopithecines: the East African evidence / Donald C. Johanson -- Homo habilis: the first human Hominin / Phillip V. Tobias -- Diversity among the first modern bipeds: Homo ergaster and Homo erectus / Ian Tattersall -- The lithic industry: the archaeological evidence for the human capacity for culture / Nicholas Toth and Kathy D. Schick -- The intellectual expressions of Homo sapiens / Emmanuel Anati -- Our unusual unity / Stephen Jay Gould -- Life in the universe / Margherita Hack -- A new economy for a new century / Lester R. Brown and Christopher Flavin -- Ecce homo / Giancarlo Ligabue. <br>Collected essays by leading international experts on the origins of man and the state of human evolution at the beginning of the third millennium.