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How Homo Became Sapiens: On the evolution of thinking by Peter G盲rdenfors, Oxford University Press, 拢25, ISBN 0198528507 Reviewed by John McCrone

ANIMALS and humans are deeply similar, but also deeply different. And what baffles us is that the mental transition was so abrupt, yet left so few clues as to its cause.

For millions of years there were large-brained bipedal apes. Then suddenly, about 100,000 years ago, there appeared fully modern Homo sapiens. Time and again scientists have run their finger over the evolutionary record, hoping to find the telltale bump that marks the reason for the change.

Peter G盲rdenfors, a Swedish cognitive scientist, offers an excellent introduction to recent speculation. He talks about the evidence that the animal mind is 鈥渢rapped in the present鈥� while human consciousness is free to roam. He shows how speech scaffolds this ability, yet qualifies this by saying that imagination and self-awareness must have come first. G盲rdenfors believes a larger prefrontal cortex underpins these powers. But didn鈥檛 the Neanderthals have brains just as big? At this crucial moment, How Homo Became Sapiens grows irritatingly vague. However, as a general review, it proves admirably level-headed.