ASINGLE, UNFORGETTABLE IMAGE COMES TO MIND when we ponder human origins: a crouching ape slowly standing and morphing into a tall, erect human male poised to conquer every bit of habitable land on this planet. We walk this earth-we, this unparalleled experiment in evolution-reflexively assuming we are the crown of creation. Certainly we are rare and strange: As biological anthropologist Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University says, "The chances that a creature like us will ever happen again are so small that I can't even measure them."
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