Origin Africa: Safaris in Deep Time is a unique guide to the most misrepresented continent on Earth. Africa is the richest continent, containing every habitat from desert to tropical forest and the widest range of flora and fauna found anywhere. It has survived extraordinary climate fluctuations, meteor bombardment and cataclysmic volcanic eruptions. But life has still managed to retain a hold on this vast continent, eventually evolving a myriad of species.
One group of primates evolved out of this crucible and moved out of Africa to dominate every continent on Earth. Africa has properties that ensure most of human evolution could have occurred nowhere else – Origin Africa is an exploration of the history, ecology and art of this extraordinary continent, led by the celebrated artist and evolutionary biologist Jonathan Kingdon.
Jonathan Kingdon is an award-winning zoologist and artist, and a research associate at the University of Oxford. He is the author of numerous books, including Lowly Origin: Why, When, and Where Our Ancestors First Stood Up and The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals.
"Magnificent. So rich, moving with ease through deep time and biological place, using a lifetime of thought"
– Redmond O'Hanlon
"Africa from the inside [...] Extremely good stuff"
– Paul Theroux
"Lovely [...] and the pictures are magnificent"
– Richard Dawkins