Bjorn Kurten

Background

Kurtén was born at Vaasa.

Career

He was a professor in paleontology at the University of Helsinki from 1972 up to his death in 1988. He also spent a year as lecturing guest professor at Harvard University in 1971. In Not from the Apes (1971) Kurtén argued that man"s development has been separate from the apes since the Miocene, and that man did not descend from anthropoids, but rather the reverse: In the course of this book, Kurten discusses seven “theses” dealing with human evolution.

One such thesis is that man did not descend from the ape.

By calling Propliopithecus a hominid, Kurten argues for a straight line from Propliopithecus to Ramapithecus and on to the “Dartians.” Since Propliopithecus predates the Dryopithecines, and the Dryopithecines were apes, our ancestors bypassed the apes in the early Miocene. He was also the author of a series of books about modern man"s encounter with Neanderthals, such as Dance of the Tiger (1978, 1980).

When asked what genre these works belonged in, Kurtén coined the term paleofiction to describe his oeuvre. This genre was popularized by Jean M. Auel in her Earth"s Children series of books

In the 1980s, Kurtén also hosted a 6-part television series about the ice age, co-produced by several Scandinavian television channels.

Achievements

• He received several awards for his books popularizing science, among others the Kalinga Prize from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Works

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• book

  • The Cave Bear Story: Life and Death of a Vanished Animal by Bjorn Kurten (1976-09-03)

    (Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include compa...)

  • THE CAVE BEAR STORY Life and Death of a Vanished Animal
  • The Cave Bear Story: Life and Death of a Vanished Animal by Bjorn Kurten (1976-09-30)
  • not from the apes: a history of man's origins and evolution
  • Not from the Apes: A History of Man's Origin and Evolution