This book offers a unique insider's perspective on the unfolding discovery of a crucial link in our evolution: Proconsul, a fossil ape named after a performing chimpanzee called Consul. The book is written in the voice of Alan Walker, whose involvement with Proconsul began when his graduate supervisor analyzed the tree climbing adaptations in the arm and hand of this extinct creature. Today Proconsul is the best known fossil ape in the world. The history of ideas is set against the vivid adventures of Walker's fossil hunting expeditions in remote regions of Africa. Analysis of the thousands of new Proconsul specimens they recovered provides revealing glimpses of the life of this last common ancestor between apes and humans.