Josef H. Reichho lf is an evolutionary biologist, natural historian, and best-selling author. Until 2010, he was head of the Vertebrata Section of the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, as well as professor of ecology and environment at the Technische Universität München. In 2007, he was awarded the Sigmund-Freud- Prize for Academic Prose; according to Cicero magazine’s 2009 ranking, he is among Germany’s 40 most influential natural scientists. Also available from S. Fischer are his previous works Einhorn, Phönix, Drache. Woher unsere Fabeltiere kommen, Eine kurze Naturgeschichte des letzten Jahrtausends and Warum die Menschen sesshaft wurden.