This update to the award-winningThe Origins of Modern Humans: A World Survey of the Fossil Evidence covers the most accepted common theories concerning the emergence of modernHomo sapiens—adding fresh insight from top young scholars on the key new discoveries of the past 25 years.

The Origins of Modern Humans: Biology Reconsidered allows field leaders to discuss and assess the assemblage of hominid fossil material in each region of the world during the Pleistocene epoch. It features new fossil and molecular evidence, such as the evolutionary inferences drawn from assessments of modern humans and large segments of the Neandertal genome. It also addresses the impact of digital imagery and the more sophisticated morphometrics that have entered the analytical fray since 1984.

Beginning with a thoughtful introduction by the authors on modern human origins, the book offers such insightful chapter contributions as:

Elegant and thought provoking,The Origins of Modern Humans: Biology Reconsidered is an ideal read for students, grad students, and professionals in human evolution and paleoanthropology.

Jim Ahern is Associate Professor of Biological Anthropology at the University of Wyoming.  Dr. Ahern's research has covered many aspects of human biological and biocultural evolution, ranging from work on the origin of the hominin lineage to the peopling of the Americas.

Contributors ix

Introduction: Thoughts on Modern Human Origins: From 1984 to 2012 xi
Fred H. Smith and James C. M. Ahern

1 Africa: The Cradle of Modern People 1
Osbjorn M. Pearson

2 Crossroads of the Old World: Late Hominin Evolution in Western Asia 45
Robert G. Franciscus and Trenton W. Holliday

3 A River Runs through It: Modern Human Origins in East Asia 89
Karen R. Rosenberg and Xinzhi Wu

4 Perspectives on the Origins of Modern Australians 123
Arthur C. Durband and Michael C. Westaway

5 Modern Human Origins in Central Europe 151
James C. M. Ahern, Ivor Jankoviæ, Jean-Luc Voisin, and Fred H. Smith

6 The Makers of the Early Upper Paleolithic in Western Eurasia 223
Jean-Jacques Hublin

7 Neandertal Craniofacial Growth and Development and Its Relevance for Modern Human Origins 253
Frank LEngle Williams

8 Energetics and the Origin of Modern Humans 285
Andrew W. Froehle, Todd R. Yokley, and Steven E. Churchill

9 Understanding Human Cranial Variation in Light of Modern Human Origins 321
John H. Relethford

10 The Relevance of Archaic Genomes to Modern Human Origins 339
John Hawks and Zach Throckmorton

11 The Process of Modern Human Origins: The Evolutionary and Demographic Changes Giving Rise to Modern Humans 355
Rachel Caspari and Milford H. Wolpoff

12 The Paleobiology of Modern Human Emergence 393
Erik Trinkaus

Index 435
The color plate section can be found between pages 242 and 243.