Are we «the chosen species», the necessary outcome of the long course of evolution? Or are we an accident, the result of one of many possible alternatives in the history of life? What came first, a bipedal being or an intelligent being? Since when have human beings been able to speak? Were our ancestors monogamous? How did they live? What did they eat?

This book has been conceived to give answers to these and many other questions about our origins. As in a detective story, the authors look for the pieces of evidence of the «crime» and go on to reconstruct the sequence of facts, explaining the how, when, and why. With the scientific rigor to be expected from first-rate investigators, Juan Luis Arsuaga and Ignacio Martínez render in The Chosen Species the best and most documented synthesis of the enigma of human beings.