The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of EvolutionThe renowned biologist and thinker Richard Dawkins presents his most expansive work yet: a comprehensive look at evolution, ranging from the latest developments in the field to his own provocative views. Loosely based on the form of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Dawkins's Tale takes us modern humans back through four billion years of life on our planet. As the pilgrimage progresses, we join with other organisms at the forty "rendezvous points" where we find a common ancestor. The band of pilgrims swells into a vast crowd as we join first with other primates, then with other mammals, and so on back to the first primordial organism. Dawkins's brilliant, inventive approach allows us to view the connections between ourselves and all other life in a bracingly novel way. It also lets him shed bright new light on the most compelling aspects of evolutionary history and theory: sexual selection, speciation, convergent evolution, extinction, genetics, plate tectonics, geographical dispersal, and more. The Ancestor's Tale is at once a far-reaching survey of the latest, best thinking on biology and a fascinating history of life on Earth. Here Dawkins shows us how remarkable we are, how astonishing our history, and how intimate our relationship with the rest of the living world. |
Contents
I | 1 |
II | 12 |
III | 26 |
IV | 37 |
VII | 41 |
VIII | 48 |
IX | 62 |
X | 64 |
LXV | 313 |
LXVI | 320 |
LXVII | 322 |
LXVIII | 328 |
LXIX | 330 |
LXX | 332 |
LXXI | 334 |
LXXII | 336 |
XI | 66 |
XII | 71 |
XIII | 75 |
XIV | 77 |
XV | 86 |
XVI | 100 |
XVIII | 104 |
XIX | 106 |
XXI | 108 |
XXII | 112 |
XXIV | 115 |
XXV | 119 |
XXVII | 123 |
XXVIII | 137 |
XXX | 141 |
XXXII | 145 |
XXXIII | 156 |
XXXIV | 160 |
XXXV | 163 |
XXXVI | 169 |
XXXVII | 174 |
XXXIX | 177 |
XL | 179 |
XLI | 183 |
XLII | 186 |
XLIII | 192 |
XLIV | 196 |
XLV | 202 |
XLVI | 203 |
XLVII | 212 |
XLVIII | 217 |
XLIX | 223 |
L | 227 |
LI | 231 |
LII | 235 |
LIII | 242 |
LIV | 247 |
LV | 254 |
LVI | 257 |
LVII | 260 |
LVIII | 263 |
LIX | 273 |
LX | 278 |
LXI | 287 |
LXII | 293 |
LXIII | 299 |
LXIV | 311 |
LXXIII | 344 |
LXXIV | 347 |
LXXV | 349 |
LXXVI | 354 |
LXXVII | 359 |
LXXVIII | 362 |
LXXIX | 364 |
LXXX | 367 |
LXXXI | 372 |
LXXXII | 377 |
LXXXIII | 386 |
LXXXIV | 390 |
LXXXV | 395 |
LXXXVI | 397 |
LXXXVII | 414 |
LXXXVIII | 424 |
LXXXIX | 433 |
XC | 436 |
XCI | 449 |
XCII | 458 |
XCIII | 463 |
XCIV | 477 |
XCV | 480 |
XCVI | 483 |
XCVII | 486 |
XCVIII | 488 |
XCIX | 490 |
C | 493 |
CI | 497 |
CII | 502 |
CIII | 506 |
CIV | 510 |
CV | 514 |
CVI | 524 |
CVIII | 529 |
CIX | 536 |
CX | 540 |
CXI | 543 |
CXII | 553 |
CXIII | 559 |
CXIV | 582 |
CXV | 617 |
CXVI | 619 |
624 | |
642 | |
CXIX | 644 |
Other editions - View all
The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution Richard Dawkins,Yan Wong Limited preview - 2016 |
The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution Richard Dawkins,Yan Wong No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
adult Africa algae American animals apes bacteria bdelloid bipedal birds body bonobos brain branch called Cambrian cells chimpanzees chromosome cichlid cnidarians colour colugos common ancestor Concestor coral cousins creatures Darwin Darwinian descendants deuterostomes dinosaurs elephant eukaryotic evidence evolution evolutionary evolved extinct eyes family tree females fish flatworms fossils genetic genome gibbons Gondwana gorillas happen Homo Homo ergaster Hox genes human individual insects island join kind Lake larva legs lemurs lineages living look Madagascar males mammals marsupials means million years ago modern molecular clock molecules moles mutation natural selection opsin origin perhaps phenotype phyla phylogeny pilgrimage pilgrims plants platypus population prey probably protein protostomes ratites reason recent reefs Rendezvous rodents sea squirt segment separate sexual shrews South speciation species sponges surviving swim tail Tale theory thing tion Trichoplax vertebrates whales World monkeys worms zoologists