Who Ate the First Oyster?
The Extraordinary People Behind the Greatest Firsts in History
(Sprache: Englisch)
Who wore the first pants? Who painted the first masterpiece? Who first rode the horse? Who invented soap? This madcap adventure across ancient history uses everything from modern genetics to archaeology to uncover the geniuses behind these and other...
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Who wore the first pants? Who painted the first masterpiece? Who first rode the horse? Who invented soap? This madcap adventure across ancient history uses everything from modern genetics to archaeology to uncover the geniuses behind these and other world-changing innovations.Who invented the wheel? Who told the first joke? Who drank the first beer? Who was the murderer in the first murder mystery, who was the first surgeon, who sparked the first fire--and most critically, who was the first to brave the slimy, pale oyster?
In this book, writer Cody Cassidy digs deep into the latest research to uncover the untold stories of some of these incredible innovators (or participants in lucky accidents). With a sharp sense of humor and boundless enthusiasm for the wonders of our ancient ancestors, Who Ate the First Oyster? profiles the perpetrators of the greatest firsts and catastrophes of prehistory, using the lives of individuals to provide a glimpse into ancient cultures, show how and why these critical developments occurred, and educate us on a period of time that until recently we've known almost nothing about.
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1Who Invented Inventions?
This occurred 3 million years ago, which is before humans evolved.
3 million years ago
The invention of inventions
In October 1960, a then twenty-six-year-old Jane Goodall observed a chimpanzee she dubbed David Greybeard strip a long twig of its leaves, use it to probe a termite mound, and lick away the bugs he retrieved. It may have been just a snack for Greybeard, but to a scientific community who at the time defined Homo sapiens by their unique use of tools, it was earth shattering. Goodall immediately telegraphed the news to the paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, who famously responded, "Now we must redefine tool, redefine man, or accept chimpanzees as human."
After some scrambling among anthropologists to redefine the uniqueness of our species, they landed upon our ability to use tools to make other tools. David Greybeard may strip away the branches of his termite dipping-stick, but only hominins (a catchall word that refers to H. sapiens and all of our extinct ancestors after the split from apes) could invent a special branch-stripping tool. Many archaeologists I spoke with believe the ability to plan and solve a problem using a complex device does not merely define our species, but in a few instances made our species. Our inventions aren't the result of our evolution, they believe, but are instead the explanation for the route it took. In at least a few cases, the earliest first inventors did not merely enable a new way of life or allow new economic possibilities, as we would modernly think of a modern invention, but instead enabled our evolution.
In no case is this truer than in that of the very first invention of all, made by an ancient ancestor of ours long before H. sapiens evolved.
Who was the first
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inventor?
I'll call her Ma, because she was a young mother, who like all inventors, had a problem.
Ma was born approximately 3 million years ago and belonged to an ancient ancestor species of ours called Australopithecus. She was born in Africa, perhaps Eastern Africa, where archaeologists have discovered a concentration of australopithecine fossils, including the famous "Lucy" found in 1974. Three million years ago is approximately halfway from the time when our species first split from the chimpanzee and bonobo line to the modernday, so it's no surprise that in appearance and behavior, Ma represents a middle ground between H. sapiens and chimpanzees.
She stood almost four feet tall, weighed a lithe sixty-five pounds, and other than on her hairless face she was covered in thick dark fur. Ma ate more meat than a modern chimp does, but she scavenged it rather than killed it. Ma supplemented her meals with roots, tubers, nuts, and fruits. In many respects, a modern observer might mistake her for a remarkably well-balanced, walking chimp, save for her peculiar, dexterous, and inventive use of rocks. To aid her work scavenging carcasses, Ma sharpened stones to cut into bones for marrow, which allowed her to eat meat other scavengers couldn't access.
Ma was a clever ape, but to many of Africa's big cats, she was still lunch. During the day she walked upright in search of food, but at night she clambered back into a tree nest to avoid nocturnal predators. Archaeologists have found australopithecine femurs and arm bones in caves adjacent to complete predator skeletons, which is a clear but grim signal of who was eating whom.
The predators interested in Ma were varied. She lacked fire and as a result found herself particularly vulnerable to a hunter similar to the modern panther, but she occupied a rung so low on the food chain that even eagles made the occasional meal out of australopithecines.
Her inability to start and control fir
I'll call her Ma, because she was a young mother, who like all inventors, had a problem.
Ma was born approximately 3 million years ago and belonged to an ancient ancestor species of ours called Australopithecus. She was born in Africa, perhaps Eastern Africa, where archaeologists have discovered a concentration of australopithecine fossils, including the famous "Lucy" found in 1974. Three million years ago is approximately halfway from the time when our species first split from the chimpanzee and bonobo line to the modernday, so it's no surprise that in appearance and behavior, Ma represents a middle ground between H. sapiens and chimpanzees.
She stood almost four feet tall, weighed a lithe sixty-five pounds, and other than on her hairless face she was covered in thick dark fur. Ma ate more meat than a modern chimp does, but she scavenged it rather than killed it. Ma supplemented her meals with roots, tubers, nuts, and fruits. In many respects, a modern observer might mistake her for a remarkably well-balanced, walking chimp, save for her peculiar, dexterous, and inventive use of rocks. To aid her work scavenging carcasses, Ma sharpened stones to cut into bones for marrow, which allowed her to eat meat other scavengers couldn't access.
Ma was a clever ape, but to many of Africa's big cats, she was still lunch. During the day she walked upright in search of food, but at night she clambered back into a tree nest to avoid nocturnal predators. Archaeologists have found australopithecine femurs and arm bones in caves adjacent to complete predator skeletons, which is a clear but grim signal of who was eating whom.
The predators interested in Ma were varied. She lacked fire and as a result found herself particularly vulnerable to a hunter similar to the modern panther, but she occupied a rung so low on the food chain that even eagles made the occasional meal out of australopithecines.
Her inability to start and control fir
... weniger
Autoren-Porträt von Cody Cassidy
Cody Cassidy is the co-author of the popular science book And Then You're Dead, which was translated into more than ten languages, and a former bookstore clerk in Buenos Aires. While writing Who Ate the First Oyster? he attempted to shave with chipped obsidian like the inventor of the world's first razor, retraced the final steps of an ancient murder victim through the Pyrenees and the Alps, brewed beer by spoiling gruel, and fired a replica of an ancient bow and arrow, among other experiments. He lives in San Francisco.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Cody Cassidy
- 2020, 240 Seiten, Maße: 14 x 21 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: PENGUIN BOOKS
- ISBN-10: 014313275X
- ISBN-13: 9780143132752
- Erscheinungsdatum: 14.05.2020
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Praise for Who Ate the First Oyster? [Cassidy] takes readers on a rapid-fire pop-science tour of historic discoveries and inventions . . . Making history fun is often a challenge, and here Cassidy succeeds. I read this book in one quick sip and imagine it to be a perfect gift book for young and old adults. . . . This casual but thoughtful tour through time is a great way to travel, particularly now, when we re all stuck at home.
San Francisco Chronicle
Cassidy tells the stories of individuals over the past thousands and even millions of years whose names will never be known, but whose innovations benefit us to this day.
New York Post
A fun and enlightening quick trip through all the clever, stupid, dangerous, and gross human firsts that we've all wondered about.
Zach and Kelly Weinersmith, New York Times bestselling authors of Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything
In this fascinating and entertaining book, Cody Cassidy has done what might seem impossible: illustrating the identity, life, and death of some of the most momentous and entirely anonymous figures in human (and prehuman) history.
Ryan North, author of How To Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler
Illuminating and entertaining . . . Cassidy humanizes prehistory with wit and a firm grasp of the science behind these anthropological case studies. Enthralled readers will develop a new appreciation for the ancient past.
Publishers Weekly
Cassidy embarks on a wide-ranging, far-flung journey of curiosity that easily engages the reader. Chapters are brimming with history that may surprise readers as well as compel them to further investigate.
Booklist
A breezy read through millennia of human development.
Kirkus Reviews
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