The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution

Richard Dawkins

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004 - Evolution (Biology) - 673 pages

The 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
• 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
• LXV: 313
• LXVI: 320
• LXVII: 322
• LXVIII: 328
• LXIX: 330
• LXX: 332
• LXXI: 334
• LXXII: 336
• 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
• CXVII: 624
• CXVIII: 642
• CXIX: 644

About the author

Richard Dawkins was educated at Oxford University and taught zoology at the University of California and Oxford University, holding the position of the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science. He writes about such topics as DNA and genetic engineering, virtual reality, astronomy, and evolution. His books include The Selfish Gene, The Extended Phenotype, The Blind Watchmaker, River Out of Eden, Climbing Mount Improbable, The God Delusion, and An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution; Mariner Book
• Author: Richard Dawkins
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004
• ISBN: 061861916X, 9780618619160
• Length: 673 pages