Biological Anthropology: The Natural History of Humankind, Second edition

For undergraduate introductory physical anthropology, biological anthropology or human origins courses.  

Biological Anthropology, 2/e continues to build upon the strength and success of the first edition by integrating the foundations and the most current innovations in the field from the ground up.

Over the past twenty years, this field has rapidly evolved from the study of physical anthropology into biological anthropology, incorporating the evolutionary biology of humankind based on information from the fossil record and the human skeleton, genetics of individuals and of populations, our primate relatives, human adaptation, and human behavior.  The second edition of Biological Anthropology combines the most up-to-date, comprehensive coverage of the foundations of the field with modern innovations and discoveries.

Craig Stanford is a professor of anthropology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California, where he also directs the Jane Goodall Research Center. He has conducted field research on primate behavior in south Asia, Latin America, and East Africa. He is well known for his long-term studies of meat-eating among wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania, and of the relationship between mountain gorillas and chimpanzees in the Impenetrable Forest of Uganda. He has authored or coauthored more than 120 scientific publications. Craig has received USC’s highest teaching awards for his introductory Biological Anthropology course. In addition, he has published eleven books on primate behavior and human origins, including Significant Others (2001) and Upright (2003). He and his wife, Erin Moore, a cultural anthropologist at USC, live in South Pasadena, California, and have three children.

John Allen is a research scientist in the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center and the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California, where he is also an adjunct research associate professor in the Department of Anthropology. Previously, he was a neuroscience researcher at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, for several years. His primary research interests are the evolution of the human brain and behavior, and behavioral disease. He also has research experience in molecular genetics, nutritional anthropology, and the history of anthropology. He has conducted fieldwork in Japan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Palau. He has received university awards for teaching introductory courses in biological anthropology both as a graduate student instructor at the University of California and as a faculty member at the University of Auckland. John and his wife, Stephanie Sheffield, have two sons, Reid and Perry.

Susan Antón is an associate professor in the Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology at New York University, where she also directs the M.A. program in Human Skeletal Biology. She is joint editor of the Journal of Human Evolution. Her field research concerns the evolution of genus Homo in Indonesia and human impact on island ecosystems in the South Pacific. She is best known for her work on H. erectus in Kenya and Indonesia. She received awards for teaching as a graduate student instructor of introductory physical anthropology  and anatomy at the University of California and was Teacher of the Year while at the University of Florida. She has been twice elected to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. Susan and her husband, Carl Swisher, a geochronologist, raise Anatolian shepherd dogs.