Only in Africa : The Ecology of Human Evolution

The book reaches out to palaeoanthropologists to explain how evolutionary adaptations were necessarily related to ecological shifts in savannas governed by seasonal dryness. For ecologists, it both outlines the fundamentals of savanna ecology and shows how its features nurtured the evolutionary transitions leading to modern humans.

That humans originated from Africa is well-known. However, this is widely regarded as a chance outcome, dependant simply on where our common ancestor shared the land with where the great apes lived. This volume builds on from the ''Out of Africa'' theory, and takes the view that it is only in Africa that the evolutionary transitions from a forest-inhabiting frugivore to savanna-dwelling meat-eater could have occurred. This book argues that the ecological circumstances that shaped these transitions are exclusive to Africa. It describes distinctive features of the ecology of Africa, with emphasis on savanna grasslands, and relates them to the evolutionary transitions linking early ape-men to modern humans. It shows how physical features of the continent, especially those derived from plate tectonics, set the foundations. This volume adequately conveys that we are here because of the distinctive features of the ecology of Africa.