THE ANCESTOR'S TALE is a pilgrimage back through time; a journey on which we meet up with fellow pilgrims as we and they converge on our common ancestors. Chimpanzees join us at about 6 million years in the past, orang utans at 14 million years, as we stride on together, a growing band. The journey provides the setting for a collection of some 40 tales. Each explores an aspect of evolutionary biology through the stories of characters met along the way. The tales are interspersed with prologues detailing the journey, route maps showing joining lineages, and life-like reconstructions of our common ancestors. THE ANCESTOR'S TALE represents a pilgrimage on an unimaginable scale: our goal is four billion years away, and the number of pilgrims joining us grows vast - ultimately encompassing all living creatures. At the end of the journey lies something remarkable in its simplicity and transformative power: the first, humble, replicating molecules.
The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life
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Just as we trace our personal family trees from parents to grandparents and so on back in time, so in The Ancestor's Tale Richard Dawkins traces the ancestry of life. As he is at pains to point out, this is very much our human tale, our ancestry. Surprisingly, it is one that many otherwise literate people are largely unaware of. Hopefully Dawkins's name and well deserved reputation as a best selling writer will introduce them to this wonderful saga.
The Ancestor's Tale takes us from our immediate human ancestors back through what he calls ‘concestors,’ those shared with the apes, monkeys and other mammals and other vertebrates and beyond to the dim and distant microbial beginnings of life some 4 billion years ago. It is a remarkable story which is still very much in the process of being uncovered. And, of course from a scientist of Dawkins stature and reputation we get an insider's knowledge of the most up-to-date science and many of those involved in the research. And, as we have come to expect of Dawkins, it is told with a passionate commitment to scientific veracity and a nose for a good story. Dawkins's knowledge of the vast and wonderful sweep of life's diversity is admirable. Not only does it encompass the most interesting living representatives of so many groups of organisms but also the important and informative fossil ones, many of which have only been found in recent years.
Dawkins sees his journey with its reverse chronology as ‘cast in the form of an epic pilgrimage from the present to the past [and] all roads lead to the origin of life.’ It is, to my mind, a sensible and perfectly acceptable approach although some might complain about going against the grain of evolution. The great benefit for the general reader is that it begins with the more familiar present and the animals nearest and dearest to us—our immediate human ancestors. And then it delves back into the more remote and less familiar past with its droves of lesser known and extinct fossil forms. The whole pilgrimage is divided into 40 tales, each based around a group of organisms and discusses their role in the overall story. Genetic, morphological and fossil evidence is all taken into account and illustrated with a wealth of photos and drawings of living and fossils forms, evolutionary and distributional charts and maps through time, providing a visual compliment and complement to the text. The design also allows Dawkins to make numerous running comments and characteristic asides. There are also numerous references and a good index.-- Douglas Palmer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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...Dawkins is unequalled in his ability to express complex ideas in layman's terms without sounding patronising. (Simon Shaw MAIL ON SUNDAY )
more readable than almost anyone else, a master of liquid-clear prose and revleatory pearls of insight. (David Smith THE OBSERVER )
more readable than almost anyone else, a master of liquid-clear prose and revleatory pearls of insight. (David Smith THE OBSERVER )
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History has been described as one damn thing after another. Read the first page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
78 of 80 people found the following review helpful
By Kevin Roche
Format:Paperback
This pilgrimage through 3 billion years of life on earth is one of the most amazing books I have ever read on the subject of evolution. Starting with us, Dawkins takes us on a journey back through time meeting up with our increasingly distant common ancestors (concestors) along the way until we get back to the beginnings of life itself, a point in time that is marked by the first steps along the molecular road of heredity. Each chapter has a tale to tell about the process of scientific discovery, of the wonder of evolution, told through the example of a particular member of the latest pilgrims to join.
There is so much information in this book that every day I was reading it I'd find some nugget to relate to my wife and children: how did we learn to walk bipedally; why are we hairless and drink milk; what do platypuses use their bills for; how are animal bodies segmented; what did the first vertebrate look like; what have whales and hippos got in common. Why we know what we know through phylogenetic, taxonomic, molecular and fossil data is explained fully in the chapters that deal with our meeting with each successive concestor, but Dawkins is also careful to note where there are gaps in our knowledge and offers possibilites for their solution.
This book is truly impressive.
There is so much information in this book that every day I was reading it I'd find some nugget to relate to my wife and children: how did we learn to walk bipedally; why are we hairless and drink milk; what do platypuses use their bills for; how are animal bodies segmented; what did the first vertebrate look like; what have whales and hippos got in common. Why we know what we know through phylogenetic, taxonomic, molecular and fossil data is explained fully in the chapters that deal with our meeting with each successive concestor, but Dawkins is also careful to note where there are gaps in our knowledge and offers possibilites for their solution.
This book is truly impressive.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By John Grint
Format:Paperback
Wow! If you are looking for a masterclass on the evolution of life on earth, look no further. This magnificent, weighty tome is science as high art. Packed with comprehensive scientific detail and discovery, and hugely impressive in its scale, it is nevertheless written in a highly accessible style. Don't be put off by the size of the book! Step-by-step, Dawkins takes us back through history: from the development of modern man, through the families of primates and mammals, stopping off to explore the worlds of reptiles and insects, right back to the earliest bacteria and to the origins of life itself. A series of "Tales", illustrated by particular species, brings the science vividly to life and illuminates the path as we seek out our common ancestors.
This book is a "must read" for a modern understanding of evolutionary theory.
This book is a "must read" for a modern understanding of evolutionary theory.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Combines broad brush strokes of evolutionary history with surprising and entertaining detail. For example, I had not thought through the fact that I do not necessarily inherit genes from all my ancestors - here it is lucidly explained. Although the book seems primarily concerned with animal evolution the focus is definitely human. Dawkins often comes across as somewhat acerbic in his television appearances. This is unfortunate since his writing shows him to be both charming and entertaining.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
interesting topic, well researched but so dully written.
I purchased this because the premise looked so intriguing. After all how could the journey back from us to the origin of life fail to be anything but fascinating? Read more
Published 22 days ago by bella
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant read
Superbly written with a structure that makes a understanding the evolutionary process so much easier. Read more
Published 1 month ago by srameen
5.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful book
literally wonderful - the brief 'tales' are full of amazing insights and can be taken in bite-sized chunks. Dawkins's best popular evolution book, in my view.
Published 2 months ago by Harley
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fasinating
An informative read that provides a through run through the material and provides the necessary caution when the current state of knowledge is not certain. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ancestors
A great book, well thought out with plenty of facts to make us think about everything. It is also quite entertaining.
Published 4 months ago by Mr. N. C. Gravette
4.0 out of 5 stars
Technical and Informative but the format hard to follow
I enjoyed this book immensely. It's highly technical in parts, so I learned stuff I didn't know before, but some of it was way beyond me - my fault, not the book's. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Bob Peters
4.0 out of 5 stars
Perhaps a little too much for the layman
Brilliant concept - makes me want to dig out Chaucer to see the original, well executed and by a man who knows his stuff. Read more
Published 9 months ago by S. Zacharias
4.0 out of 5 stars
Where are the plates?
This truly is a wonderful book - as a book.
I bought it to read on my ipad ("Kindle for ipad"), and though the diagrams are included, the colour plates are not. Read more
I bought it to read on my ipad ("Kindle for ipad"), and though the diagrams are included, the colour plates are not. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Giulia
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not Suitable for Kindle
This is an amazing book, Dawkins at his absolute best.
It's completely unsuitable for Kindle, though.
In paperback, you can look closely at the diagrams. Read more
It's completely unsuitable for Kindle, though.
In paperback, you can look closely at the diagrams. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Riatsala
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb
If you love evolutionary biology, then this is your book. A very comprehensive and broad exploration of natural history, that was enjoyable to read.
Published 13 months ago by chelsea
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