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The Ancestor's Tale
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The Ancestor's Tale
The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life is a popular science book by Richard Dawkins and Yan Wong in which the history of life is retraced in reverse chronological order. A growing band of species meet their most recent common ancestors (concestors). First published in 2004, it was updated in 2016 to reflect recent discoveries. There are new tales, including one written during Dawkins's pilgrimage to the Galápagos. The phylogenetic trees in the second edition are based on OneZoom.
The book is patterned on Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, in which pilgrims on the road to Canterbury converge with other groups of pilgrims. Here, species convene with concestors, and "Canterbury" is the origin of life.
The epigraph is from Mark Twain: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes." The authors contend that “Evolution rhymes, patterns occur. And this doesn't just happen to be so. It is so for well-understood reasons: Darwinian reasons, mostly, for unlike human history or even physics, biology already has its grand unifying theory.” They emphasize that no living species is ancestral to any other, but that all share a common ancestor, some more recently than others. Evidence for this fact is that the genetic code for translating genes into proteins is universal. More closely related species have more similar genes and proteins. Genes and proteins act as molecular clocks that allow us to determine when species split. They use concestor, coined by Nicky Warren, to describe the most recent common ancestor at each rendezvous point.
It is patterned on Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, in which travelers take turns telling tales. The pilgrimage progresses through extant species, with a few exceptions: “Animals such as the dodo, which survived into historical times and whose DNA is still available to us, are treated as honorary members of the modern fauna starting off on our pilgrimage … . Since we are responsible for their recent extinction, it seems the least we can do. The other honorary pilgrims, exceptions to the rule that dead man tell no tales, really are men (or women). Since we human pilgrims are directly seeking our own ancestors, fossils that might plausibly be considered candidates for being our ancestors are deemed members of our human pilgrimage and we shall hear tales from these shadow pilgrims, for example the Handyman, Homo habilis.” The pilgrims do not speak in the first person, as the authors think that "twee."
The book was revised in 2016 in light of recent discoveries. Notably, "The Denisovan's Tale" replaces "The Neanderthal's Tale" and "The Elephant Bird's Tale" has been updated. "The Mudskipper's Tale" was present in the first edition but not the second. "The Armadillo's Tale", about biogeography, is now "The Sloth's Tale." In 2005, Dawkins wrote three tales during a pilgrimage to the Galápagos. The third is reprinted in the second edition.
Each Tale illustrates an aspect of evolution. “The Galapagos Finch's Tale” is about natural selection, “The Peacock’s Tale” about sexual selection, “The Salamander’s Tale” about speciation, “The Barnacle’s Tale” about how appearances can be deceiving.
Dawkins dedicated the book to John Maynard Smith.
From the lancelets onward, the authors provide dates under duress stating that "dating becomes so difficult and controversial that my courage fails me".
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The Ancestor's Tale
The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life is a popular science book by Richard Dawkins and Yan Wong in which the history of life is retraced in reverse chronological order. A growing band of species meet their most recent common ancestors (concestors). First published in 2004, it was updated in 2016 to reflect recent discoveries. There are new tales, including one written during Dawkins's pilgrimage to the Galápagos. The phylogenetic trees in the second edition are based on OneZoom.
The book is patterned on Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, in which pilgrims on the road to Canterbury converge with other groups of pilgrims. Here, species convene with concestors, and "Canterbury" is the origin of life.
The epigraph is from Mark Twain: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes." The authors contend that “Evolution rhymes, patterns occur. And this doesn't just happen to be so. It is so for well-understood reasons: Darwinian reasons, mostly, for unlike human history or even physics, biology already has its grand unifying theory.” They emphasize that no living species is ancestral to any other, but that all share a common ancestor, some more recently than others. Evidence for this fact is that the genetic code for translating genes into proteins is universal. More closely related species have more similar genes and proteins. Genes and proteins act as molecular clocks that allow us to determine when species split. They use concestor, coined by Nicky Warren, to describe the most recent common ancestor at each rendezvous point.
It is patterned on Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, in which travelers take turns telling tales. The pilgrimage progresses through extant species, with a few exceptions: “Animals such as the dodo, which survived into historical times and whose DNA is still available to us, are treated as honorary members of the modern fauna starting off on our pilgrimage … . Since we are responsible for their recent extinction, it seems the least we can do. The other honorary pilgrims, exceptions to the rule that dead man tell no tales, really are men (or women). Since we human pilgrims are directly seeking our own ancestors, fossils that might plausibly be considered candidates for being our ancestors are deemed members of our human pilgrimage and we shall hear tales from these shadow pilgrims, for example the Handyman, Homo habilis.” The pilgrims do not speak in the first person, as the authors think that "twee."
The book was revised in 2016 in light of recent discoveries. Notably, "The Denisovan's Tale" replaces "The Neanderthal's Tale" and "The Elephant Bird's Tale" has been updated. "The Mudskipper's Tale" was present in the first edition but not the second. "The Armadillo's Tale", about biogeography, is now "The Sloth's Tale." In 2005, Dawkins wrote three tales during a pilgrimage to the Galápagos. The third is reprinted in the second edition.
Each Tale illustrates an aspect of evolution. “The Galapagos Finch's Tale” is about natural selection, “The Peacock’s Tale” about sexual selection, “The Salamander’s Tale” about speciation, “The Barnacle’s Tale” about how appearances can be deceiving.
Dawkins dedicated the book to John Maynard Smith.
From the lancelets onward, the authors provide dates under duress stating that "dating becomes so difficult and controversial that my courage fails me".
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