Description: Ever since hominins first appeared on Earth long ago, how did they evolve and survive? This series introduces the field of biological anthropology, exploring that question through both brain science and archaeology. The previous series, Human Investigation Report, followed the Aure expedition team as they lived among and observed humans, showing readers why we humans think, perceive, and behave the way we do — offering a taste of the essence of brain science along the way. This newly planned series, Humankind Exploration Report, introduces an even deeper field: 'biological anthropology,' or more precisely, 'paleo-neuro-bioanthropology.' In other words, rather than focusing only on humans today, this series uses both brain science and archaeology to explore what kind of brains hominins had hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands of years ago, and how they evolved to survive on Earth. It introduces readers to a field of study that uses biological principles to imagine humanity's distant past. The name sounds complicated and intimidating, but through it, we're actually uncovering fascinating answers about how humans lived tens of thousands of years ago. If Human Investigation Report was 'a brain science project for children,' then Humankind Exploration Report is the very first project to introduce 'the brain science of Homo Sapiens' to young readers. History truly is an incredibly scientific subject — and we hope even children who love history will enjoy this series! While Human Investigation Report was a book that children who love brain science and science in general could immerse themselves in, Humankind Exploration Report adds history into the mix, making it a book that history-loving children can enjoy as well. History may feel like the humanities, far removed from science, but in fact, history is one of the most scientific fields of study there is. To understand how our ancestors lived, we must use small fragments of historical evidence and clues to imagine and reconstruct the past in our minds — and for that reconstruction to be convincing, a scientific approach is absolutely essential. That's why biological anthropology can be considered the very essence of science, perhaps more than any other field. This series was created with the hope that children can experience that essence of science for themselves. The ancestors described and depicted in this book are not presented as absolute truth. Just as we infer 'this is probably how humanity lived' from surviving bone fragments, skull shapes, and the ruins and artifacts our ancestors left behind, this book is structured much like a modern forensic team tracking down a culprit using only clues from a crime scene. In that spirit, we hope every reader can become an anthropology detective, piecing together a picture of our ancient ancestors in their own mind. To understand how humanity built today's vast civilizations, and what sets us apart from other great apes, we need to explore biological anthropology. So why introduce children not just to brain science, but to a field that sounds so difficult even by name? When we study what scientists have recently discovered about the differences between humans and other great apes, we find some truly surprising things about ourselves. Very young great apes — orangutans, chimpanzees, gorillas — show little difference from two- or three-year-old human children. Scientists have found that they are remarkably intelligent and capable of many of the same clever behaviors we are. So how is it that we went on to build such an enormous intellectual civilization and now live amid the complexities of modern society, while they remain in a far more primitive state? And why did other hominins, like Homo neanderthalensis, Homo erectus, and Homo habilis, fail to survive to this day, going extinct instead? To find clues to these questions, we need to examine what set the brains of ancient Homo Sapiens apart — both from the great apes and from the other, now-extinct hominins. And when we look closely, it turns out that brain size wasn't the key factor. Having a larger skull or greater brain volume wasn't what mattered most, either...