The Naked Ape's Bit Part 



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Wassily Kandinsky, Succession:© 1994 Artist's Rights Society; The Phillips Collection 



Even the smallest single-celled organism probably would be obnoxiously self- 

 centered if it had the means and time to think about itself. And Homo sapiens, 

 who by definition are thinking animals, certainly have worried their big brains 



more about the details of their own evolution than any other species. But 



humans have played, at best, only a bit part in the four-bUlion-year drama of life 



on earth. H. sapiens barely deserve mention in this special issue. Furthermore, 



Natural History has treated them extensively in the past (see the section on 



human evolution in the April 1993 issue as an example). Yet knowing (and 



sharing) our readers' human foible of narrow self-interest, we end this issue with 



three evolutionary essays on human diseases, our body plan, and the global 



genetic diversity of our species. 



70 Natur.-\l H'story 6/94 



