Focuses on the ways in which climatic change during the last 15 million years - especially the last 3 million - has affected human evolution and other evolutionary events. Among the subjects discussed are: global and regional climatic changes; tectonism and its effects on climate; the evolution of biomes and mammals; the ways climate might have influenced the origins of hominid species; and the evolution of hominid morphologies and behaviours. The book draws on the comparatively rich data base of the Late Neogene and includes data sets and hypotheses on palaeoclimatic changes and on floral and mammalian evolution.