Alan Walker (1) (1938–2017)
Author of The Wisdom of the Bones: In Search of Human Origins
For other authors named Alan Walker, see the disambiguation page.
Works by Alan Walker
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Walker, Alan Cyril
- Birthdate
- 1938-08-23
- Date of death
- 2017-11-20
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Leicester, Leicestershire, England, UK
- Education
- The Gateway School
St. John's College, Cambridge (BA)
University of London (PhD)
University of Chicago (DSc, honorary) - Occupations
- anthropologist
Palaeontologist - Relationships
- Shipman, Pat (second wife)
- Organizations
- Pennsylvania State University
National Museum of Kenya
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
National Academy of Sciences
American Association of Physical Anthropologists - Awards and honors
- Fellow of the Royal Society
Charles R. Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 4
- Members
- 326
- Popularity
- #72,687
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 4
- ISBNs
- 171
- Languages
- 6
Alan Walker is a vertebrate paleontologist; Pat Shipman is his wife and a talented author; together they produced The Ape in the Tree. Shipman (who I am embarrassed to admit I once thought was male) is the author of the excellent Taking Wing, about Archaeopteryx; The Ape in the Tree is a similar thorough treatment of the history of Proconsul paleontology, the animal’s autecology, and its systematic position. There’s considerable technical detail, including diagrams of the width of the last caudal vertebrae (to aid in understanding how the animal bent to feed) and histograms of body mass based on femur length (to decide how many species of Proconsul existed. For those who might be interested in such things, the title is a pun; Proconsul is in the evolutionary “tree”, and the best fossils were found in, literally, a tree (the fossilized stump of a hollow tree that accumulated various animal remains). No weaknesses I noted; highly recommended.… (more)