Originally published as Wie wir Menscen wurden in Germany, ©2019, by Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich.

A thrilling new account of human origins, as told by the paleontologist who led the most groundbreaking dig in recent history.-- Somewhere west of Munich, Madelaine Böhme and her colleagues dig for clues to the origins of humankind. What they discover is beyond anything they imagined: the fossilized bones of Danuvius guggenmosi ignite a global media frenzy. This ancient ancestor defies our knowledge of human history--his nearly twelve-million-year-old bones were not located in Africa--the so-called birthplace of humanity--but in Europe, and his features suggest we evolved much differently than scientists once believed.In prose that reads like a gripping detective novel, Ancient Bones interweaves the story of the dig that changed everything with the fascinating answer to a previously undecided and now pressing question: How, exactly, did we become human? Placing Böhme's discovery alongside former theories of human evolution, the authors show how this remarkable find (and others in Eurasia) are forcing us to rethink the story we've been told about how we came to be, a story that has been our guiding narrative--until now.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-321) and index.

El Graeco and the split between chimpanzees and humans. Questioning the origins of humans: the detective work begins -- The Greek adventure: the first fossil apes from Pikermi -- In the Queen's garden: Bruno von Freyberg's discovery -- In search of forgotten treasure: a journey into the catacombs beneath the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg -- Magnetometers and microtomography: ancient bones in a high-tech lab -- The real planet of the pages. Disasters and successes: a short history of the search for our origins -- African beginnings: the golden age of ape evolution -- Progress in Europe: great apes in oak forests -- Apes in Allgäu: was Udo a missing link -- The cradle of humanity: Africa or Europe?. The primal ancestor: still an ape or an early hominin -- Fossil footprints from Crete: puzzling prints of an ancient biped -- A skull in the sand and a secret thighbone: the shady case of Sahelanthropus -- From early hominin to prehistoric human: the out-of-Africa theory begins to wobble -- Climate change as a driver of evolution. Not just counting bones: reconstructing the environment is key -- Buried in the sands of time: landscape and vegetation in El Graeco's time -- The great barrier: a gigantic desert becomes an insurmountable obstacle -- A gray-white desert and a salty sea: The Mediterranean dries out -- What makes humans human. Free hands: lots of room for creativity -- Wanderlust: curiosity about the unknown -- Hairless marathoner: the running human -- Fire, intellect, and small teeth: how diet influenced the development of brain -- Vocal connections: from Alarm cries to culture -- The lone survivor. A confusing complexity: the problem with the family tree -- A puzzling phenomenon: humans from Denisova cave -- And then there was one: the rational human.

In English. Translated from German.