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The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution Paperback – September 2, 2005

by Richard Dawkins (Author)

316 customer reviews

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With unparalleled wit, clarity, and intelligence, Richard Dawkins, one of the world's most renowned evolutionary biologists, has introduced countless readers to the wonders of science in works such as The Selfish Gene. Now, in The Ancestor's Tale, Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and a riveting read.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

RICHARD DAWKINS taught zoology at the University of California at Berkeley and at Oxford University and is now the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, a position he has held since 1995. Among his previous books are The Ancestor’s Tale, The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, Climbing Mount Improbable, Unweaving the Rainbow, and A Devil’s Chaplain. Dawkins lives in Oxford with his wife, the actress and artist Lalla Ward.

Product details

Paperback: 688 pages
Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (September 2, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 061861916X
ISBN-13: 978-0618619160
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.6 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 316 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #156,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #38 in Books > Science & Math > Evolution > Organic

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A masterpiece of science writing

April 27, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I thought the first edition of The Ancestor's Tale was perhaps the best piece of science writing for the layman I had ever read. Because scientific discovery does not stand still, a second revised edition was felt to be necessary, which offered me the opportunity to read it all over again. It did not disappoint. While retaining the overall structure of the original, it takes into account new knowledge gleaned from the fossil record and from molecular biology. Some day there will be a third edition, with new corrections and refinements. I hope to be around to read it.

Other reviewers will point out perceived flaws, and I do not contradict them, though to some extent they contradict each other. This is a highly individualistic approach to the history of life on earth, and no doubt others would have written it differently--if they had bothered to write it in the first place. Dawkins did, aided seamlessly in this new edition by Yan Wong. It was a masterpiece then and it is a masterpiece now.

7 people found this helpful

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The Great Historical Rendezvous

July 12, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

If you can still read very long books, this one is a winner for anyone interested in evolution. In an easy conversational style, author Dawkins takes the reader from now all the way back to the common ancestor of most living beings. It is a daunting task but Dawkins shows that he is up to it. Using the research of many who have gone before, Richard Dawkins ties it all together as he joins various species one after the other on his way back through the ages. The reader will be surprised as to whom our nearest cousins are, and maybe even more surprised at how impersonal evolution seems to be as it tries out and discards various forms of living creatures.

4 people found this helpful

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Laurence Chalem

Dawkins at his best

June 9, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

All of Dr. Dawkins's books are seminal in their own right; but, most remarkable is THE ANCESTOR'S TALE: A PILGRIMAGE TO THE DAWN OF EVOLUTION. In this treatise, Richard Dawkins creatively, eloquently utilizes backward chronology to search out ancestors to "sensibly aim towards a single distant target." On opposite ends of a small log, he serves as gentle, factual storyteller, bringing us "back to the universal progenitor of all surviving organisms, probably resembling some kind of bacterium." His lexicon includes "rendezvous," "confluence," and, most notably, "concestor."

"In a backward chronology, the ancestors of any set of species must eventually meet at a particular geological moment. Their point of rendezvous is the last common ancestor that they all share, what I shall call their `Concestor': the focal rodent or the focal mammal or the focal vertebrate, say. The oldest concestor is the grand ancestor of all surviving life."

And the oldest concestor, according to Dawkins, before animals and plants, before multicellularity, is the single cell progenitor bacteria.

"The analogy of insect colony to human body is often made, and it is not a bad one. The majority of our cells subjugate their individuality, devoting themselves to assisting the reproduction of the minority that are capable of it: `germ-line' cells in the testes or ovaries, whose genes are destined to travel, via sperm or eggs, into the distant future. But genetic relatedness is not the only basis for subjugation of individuality in fruitful division of labor. Any sort of mutual assistance, where each side corrects a deficiency in the other, can be favored by natural selection on both."

If I were stranded on an island with access to only one book, ANCESTOR'S TALE would easily be my first choice... - lc

4 people found this helpful

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Dawkins' Magnum Opus

April 12, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

An extensively detailed 600 page tome following the path of evolution backwards, from humans all the way back to the first single cell organisms. Dawkins, alternating science with humorous asides, traces our lineage all the back to the very beginning of life. Not the easiest book of his to read, but sticking with it to the end will be rewarding for those truly interested in the subject matter.

3 people found this helpful

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Life is amazing

December 27, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a thick book. It is over 600 pages long and it is filled with facts, and some of these are mildly dense. If you manage to finish it, back to back of course, you will be enchanted by the processes via which we humans came into being through myriad awe-inspiring "stages" (I know I should avoid this word), right back to the beginning from some simple and tiny self-replicating molecules. It also demonstrates satisfyingly how we are related to all extant (and extinct) organisms on earth.

On top of that, Richard Dawkins uses this wonderful story of life on earth as a pretext to introduce, illustrate and illuminate a gigantic amount of biological, geological and even political ideas. These actually constitute a main bulk of the book. You will learn about tectonics, genetics, cladistics, and even mathematics. They appear random at first sight but can be woven into an all encompassing tapestry. The chapter on race (page 397-414) is particularly inspiring.

The penultimate chapter ("Canterbury") is slightly weak. It is, I think, very important to consider the second law of thermodynamics in explaining the concept of enzyme/catalyst. It is also crucial in contemplating on the origin of life. For this, I recommend the first chapter of Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution.

I find it interesting that biblical allusions abound: Noah (pages 248-252 and 405); Manna (p. 397); Ezekiel (p. 559 - this particular one I find slightly gratuitous); Leviticus/Deutoronomy & Proverbs (p. 221); Leviticus again (p. 250)

Depending on your personal taste, the last chapter may be the most rewarding one. While it probably is not Dawkins' primary intention, this chapter to me portrays how beautiful and MEANINGFUL life is. As a "religious person" that he refers to (page 614), I can attest that I agree with him (read page 614; you'll know what I mean).

Truly illuminating. Five stars.

5 people found this helpful

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