How Many Friends Does One Person Need?: Dunbar's Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks Review

How Many Friends Does One Person Need: Dunbar's Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks
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How Many Friends Does One Person Need: Dunbar's Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks ReviewI thought it was a very good book. I found it very enjoyable to read. I also thought that it provides a lot to think about.
However, I didn't give it 4 or even 5 stars, because it has major flaws.
For one thing, at least in the Kindle edition, the author doesn't cite any references.
More seriously, a lot of the author's statements are just wrong.
For example:
In chapter 10 'The Darwin Wars', it's stated, "Chris Organ from Harvard University and his colleagues carried out the first successful extraction of DNA from a 65 million year old Tyrannosaurus rex ..." Well, no actually, it was collagen protein. DNA is so fragile that around 100,000 years remains its limit for recovery. The only reference to dinosaur DNA and Chris Organ I can find is his observation that the lacunae in fossil T rex bone (which previously contained the bone cells, osteocytes, are smaller, so therefore the osteocytes were smaller, so therefore the nuclei were smaller, so therefore the genomes were smaller (with less 'junk' DNA)-like contemporary birds (there might be one or two 'therefores' too many).
In the very same chapter, it's stated, discussing Kennewick Man the 9,000 year old remains found in Washington state, "There is now compelling evidence to suggest that the earliest inhabitants of North America did in fact come from Europe (the vicinity of Spain, as it happens)" sometime around 20,000 years ago". Again no; extraordinary claims (humans managed to cross the Atlantic, in a glaciation, and then crossed the entire North American continent?) need extraordinary proof. The alternate interpretation that Kennewick Man more closely resembles the Ainu of northern Japan and came from there is more plausible.
In chapter 5 'The Ancestors That Still Haunt Us', in a discussion about Indo-European languages, it's stated " ... Finnish and Hungarian, both of which derive from the invasions by Mongolian peoples, the latter most famously associated with Attila the Hun and his chums". Again no; Hungarian (and Finnish and Estonian) are derived from an Ugric language of western Siberia 3,000 years ago. Nomads, but not Mongolian.
The book would have been considerably improved if someone else had read it before publication and checked the 'facts'. The errors don't damage the authors arguments seriously, but I'd advise that I'd check any 'facts' proffered before using them, particularly if they seem difficult to believe.How Many Friends Does One Person Need: Dunbar's Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks Overview

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