The Ancestor's Tale
A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A fully updated edition of one of the most original accounts of evolution ever written.
'Extraordinarily detailed, serious and engaging' Daily Mail
'One of the richest accounts of evolution ever' Financial Times
'Dizzying . . . fresh, exhilarating' Daily Telegraph
The Ancestor's Tale is a dazzling, four-billion-year pilgrimage to the origins of us all. Richard Dawkins and Yan Wong take us on an exhilarating reverse journey through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life. It is a journey happily interrupted by meetings of fellow modern animals (as well as plants, fungi and bacteria) similarly tracing their evolutionary path back through history. As each evolutionary pilgrim tells their tale, Dawkins and Wong shed light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection and extinction.
Written with unparalleled wit, clarity and intelligence, taking in new scientific discoveries of the past decade and including new 'tales', illustrations and fractal diagrams, The Ancestor's Tale shows us just how remarkable we are.
'A new chronicle of life, wonderfully illustrated, from this great evolutionist' Economist
'The result is not just a wealth of ideas about how living things evolved, but a strong sense of the urgency and absorption with which science is done' Independent
'The Ancestor's Tale achieves the almost impossible: it makes biology . . . interesting again' Lancet
'This is epic stuff indeed and Mr Dawkins carries it off with triumphant skill, never sacrificing the complexity of his argument to the voracious god of dumbing down' Wall Street Journal
See what readers are saying:
'[An] eminently readable book, fizzing with evidence, anecdote, theories and speculation' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'These essays are marvels of wit and models of scientific integrity' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'If this is the only pilgrimage you undertake during your lifetime, I'm sure you will find it a most rewarding one' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The diversity of the earth's plant and animal life is amazing especially when one considers the near certainty that all living things can trace their lineage back to a single ancestor a bacterium that lived more than three billion years ago. Taking his cue from Chaucer, noted Oxford biologist Dawkins (The Selfish Gene, etc.) works his way narratively backward through time. As the path reaches points where humanity's ancestors converge with those of other species primates, mammals, amphibians and so on various creatures have tales that carry an evolutionary lesson. The peacock, for example, offers a familiar opportunity to discuss sexual selection, which is soon freshly applied to the question of why humans started walking upright. These passages maintain an erudite yet conversational voice whether discussing the genetic similarities between hippos and whales (a fact "so shocking that I am still reluctant to believe it") or the existence of prehistoric rhino-sized rodents. The book's accessibility is crucial to its success, helping to convince readers that, given a time span of millions of years, unlikely events, like animals passing from one continent to another, become practically inevitable. This clever approach to our extended family tree should prove a natural hit with science readers.
