Genes, cerebros y símbolos

At some point in the past, our Australopithecine ancestors abandoned the protection of forests and ventured to walk upright through the African savannas. Those first steps, together with a growing meat intake and the use of the first tools, began an evolutionary race that, about four million years later, has allowed Homo sapiens to spread throughout the planet and colonize all ecosystems. This book tells the fascinating story of the milestones that have marked the evolution of the human lineage on Earth: from bipedalism, loss of body hair, and increased brain mass to cooperative behavior, the "invention" of childhood, and adolescence, group solidarity with the sick and elderly, and the development of highly complex language and symbolic thinking.