Books by Richard Milner
The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans
by G. J. Sawyer, Viktor Deak, Esteban Sarmiento, Richard Milner
The first opportunity to meet our extinct human ancestors face-to-face, through life-size reconstructions and detailed descriptions
"This unusual book draws on three-dimensional recreations to bring to life 22 of our long-vanished ancestors. . . . Convey(s) both scientific information and the sense that these were once thinking, feeling creatures."—Scientific American
"Although the art is spectacular—reason enough to spend a lot of time with this book—its triumph is science."—Nan Crystal Arens, American Paleontologist
This book tells the story of human evolution, the epic of Homo sapiens and its colorful precursors and relatives. The story begins in Africa, six to seven million years ago, and encompasses twenty known human species, of which Homo sapiens is the sole survivor. Illustrated with spectacular, three-dimensional scientific reconstructions portrayed in their natural habitat developed by a team of physical anthropologists at the American Museum of Natural History and in concert with experts from around the world, the book is both a guide to extinct human species and an astonishing hominid family photo album. The Last Human presents a comprehensive account of each species with information on its emergence, chronology, geographic range, classification, physiology, lifestyle, habitat, environment, cultural achievements, co-existing species, and possible reasons for extinction. Also included are summaries of fossil discoveries, controversies, and publications. What emerges from the fossil story is a new understanding of Homo sapiens. No longer credible is the notion that our species is the end product of a single lineage, improved over generations by natural selection. Rather, the fossil record shows, we are a species with widely varied precursors, and our family tree is characterized by many branchings and repeated extinctions.
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Jay Matternes Paleoartist and Wildlife Painter
by Richard Milner, Ian Tattersall
The first career-spanning volume on Jay Matternes (b. 1933), whose scientific rigor and artistic skill set a new standard in natural history illustration
Millions have grown up inspired by Jay Matternes' murals of extinct mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History. Others have savored his depictions of human origins in such prestigious publications as Science, National Geographic, Scientific American, and Natural History. Matternes' art has also graced popular books by such trailblazing wildlife scientists as Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Louis Leakey.
Now, for the first time, the entire scope of Matternes' achievement is revealed in this full-color retrospective, prepared with the artist's full cooperation and featuring many works never before published. Here are his depictions of living species, whose anatomical accuracy and vivid detail owe much to Matternes' lifelong devotion to painting from nature: the wildlife of Africa, the birds of America, chimpanzees and gorillas, and more. Here, too, is his paleoart, meticulously reconstructed from the fossil evidence and ranging from dinosaurs, through the rise of mammals, to our hominin ancestors--including Matternes' groundbreaking reconstruction of the 4.4-million-year-old hominin Ardipithecus, on which he labored in secrecy for more than a decade. The highly readable text includes, among other special features, selections from the artist's twenty-year correspondence with the late Dian Fossey.
Jay Matternes: Paleoartist and Wildlife Painter will be an essential volume not only for aspiring illustrators and paleoartists, but for anyone with an interest in the natural world and how we visualize it.
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