Immersing readers in the controversial debate on the origins of modern humans, this "provocative and enthralling" account of discovery will change the way we look at human evolution.
In 1997, paleoanthropologist Lee Berger observed the unmistakable fossilised footprints of a modern human female along the shores of a South African lagoon. But the real surprise came when he realised that the prints were at least 117,000 years old - the oldest ever discovered. Had Berger stumbled upon the proverbial Missing Link - the elusive connection between our earliest ancestors and the modern humans?
Prevailing wisdom accepts that humans originated in East Africa, but Berger's mounting evidence suggested that the central events in human evolution actually occurred in South Africa. If this was so, his discovery called for a complete revision of the story of evolution.
