The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey: Unearthing the Origins of Monkeys, Apes, and Humans

Preface

Preface The story of human evolution has been told many times before, and it will no doubt continue to be revised and updated as new fossils are discovered . My goal in writing this book has been to add a much-needed prologue to what is now a familiar tale. If the major outlines of human origins are settled, the search for anthropoid origins remains scientifically in its infancy. Great strides have been made over the past two centuries, but we remain fairly ignorant of such basic questions as when, where, how, and why our earliest anthropoid ancestors evolved. This appraisal is not meant as a critique. Ignorance is to science as economic opportunity is to capitalism. It is more rewarding to toil in earnest on an unsettled issue than to tinker at the margins of a topic that is largely known. The story of anthropoid origins is fascinating precisely because so much of it remains in flux. At the same time, it is a story that has never been made available to a wide audience, one that extends beyond the narrow group of academic specialists who have devoted much of their professional lives to solving its mysteries. Teamwork plays a vital role in paleontology, because scientific advances in this field hinge on isolated discoveries that reach across vast swaths of space and time. Over the past decade or so, I have had the privilege of working with some of the finest and most accomplished paxiii leontologists in the world, in places that few ever get to visit. I have no doubt that I have learned more from my colleagues than vice versa. Throughout, we have been united by our mutual goal of illuminating the remote ancestry that we humans share with other anthropoid or “higher” primates. Paleontology is one of the few academic disciplines in which field exploration remains a fundamental part of the quest to expand knowledge and understanding. This unique combination of the possibility for personal adventure and intellectual fulfillment is what attracted me to paleontology in the first place. I hope that I am able to impart a fraction of what I have experienced and learned during these past few years in this book. My role in this story would not have been possible without the support and cooperation of a large number of individuals and institutions. It gives me great pleasure to thank my colleagues at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Mary Dawson and Luo Zhexi, who have often ventured into the field with me and who have served as frequent sounding boards for my ideas, while constantly providing me with their own unique expertise. Equally important have been a number of other colleagues who have worked alongside me in the field in China: Dan Gebo, Marc Godinot, Wulf Gose, John Kappelman, Leonard Krishtalka, Ross MacPhee, Jay Norejko, Tim Ryan, and Alan Tabrum. I am also deeply indebted to my friends and colleagues at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing: Qi Tao, Wang Banyue, Li Chuankuei, Wang Yuanqing, Tong Yongsheng, Wang Jingwen, Huang Xueshi, and Guo Jianwei. For years, these world-class scholars and indomitable scientists have welcomed my American colleagues and me into their country and into their homes. During our joint expeditions to various parts of China, they have imparted their knowledge and perseverance along with their unmatched organizational skills, without which none of the expeditions could ever have been launched. More important, they have extended a hand of friendship to me and many other wei guo ren that will always be cherished. I also want to thank some of the scientists who played such critical roles in my formal education and professional training, and who have enlightened and inspired me through the years, among them Rich Kay, Elwyn Simons, Ken Rose, Tom Bown, and Alan Walker. Fieldwork in distant locales can be expensive, and none of this research could have been conducted without the financial support of various institutions , including the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the xiv PREFACE Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the Physical Anthropology Program at the National Science Foundation. A fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave me the flexibility to take on this challenge. In writing the manuscript, I have benefited from the wisdom and insight of numerous friends and colleagues, including Mary Dawson, Dan Gebo, Bert Covert, Ken Rose, Jean-Jacques...