Penguin Books Australia

Come face to face with our ancestors

Travel back 8 million years with Evolution The Human Story and go on a fascinating journey to discover how our species has developed from tree-dwelling primates to modern humans.

'When it comes to human evolution Chris Stringer is as close to the horse's mouth as it gets . . . The Origin of Our Species should be the one-stop source on the subject. Read it now'   BBC Focus  

Do all humans originate from Africa? How did we spread across the globe? Are we separate from Neanderthals, or do some of us actually have their genes? When did humans become 'modern' - are...

Have you ever wondered why our bodies look and work and fail the way they do?

One of the world's leading experts in evolutionary history, Neil Shubin reveals that if we want to understand our limbs we should take a close look at Tiktaalik, the first fish capable of doing a push-up; that if we want to know why we hiccup, the answer is in the way fish breathe; and explains why it is that fish teeth are...

The Autobiographies of Charles Darwin (1809-82) provide a fascinating glimpse into the mind of one of the world's intellectual giants. They begin with engaging memories of his childhood and youth and of his burgeoning scientific curiosity and love of the natural world, which led to him joining the expedition on the Beagle. Darwin follows this with survey of his career and ends with a reckoning of his...

When HMS Beagle sailed out of Devonport on 27 December 1831, Charles Darwin was twenty-two and setting off on the voyage of a lifetime. His journal, here reprinted in a shortened form, shows a naturalist making patient observations concerning geology, natural history, people, places and events. Volcanoes in the Galapagos, the Gossamer spider of Patagonia and the Australasian coral reefs – all...