The Smart Neanderthal: Cave Art, Bird Catching, and the Cognitive Revolution - Clive Finlayson

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Résumé :
Evidence that Neanderthals caught birds and used their feathers for decoration, along with recent discoveries of Neanderthal cave art, are challenging our preconceptions of the cognitive gap between Neanderthals and modern humans. Clive Finlayson draws on new evidence to overturn the old image of the Neanderthal, and our relationship with them.

Biographie:
Clive Finlayson is an evolutionary biologist whose research areas focus on birds and the behavioural ecology of Neanderthals. He has been the Director of Excavations at Neanderthal sites in Gibraltar since 1989, and has been involved in major recent discoveries, including that of the first known engraving made by a Neanderthal. A regular contributor to BBC News Online (Science and Environment), he is also the author of several books, including The Improbable Primate (OUP, 2014) and The Humans Who Went Extinct (OUP, 2010). He was elected to the Academia Europaea in 2010.

Sommaire:
Preface; 1 Nana and flint; 2 Neanderthals and birds; 3 Lessons from the Arctic; 4 The long-tailed duck; 5 The white ghost; 6 Gibraltar; 7 The dynamic world of dunes; 8 Lakes and plains; 9 The great auk; 10 Big eyes; 11 Digging in the cave; 12 Neanderthal real estate; 13 Of seals and limpets; 14 Birds of a feather; 15 The golden eagle; 16 Ambushing the scavengers; 17 The big six; 18 How to skin a vulture; 19 Pigeons and choughs; 20 Feeding the vultures; 21 The hashtag and the end of the long road to Neanderthal emancipation; Appendix 1 Bird Names used in the Text; Appendix 2 Mammal Names used in the Text; Endnotes; Further reading; Index