The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life is a popular science book by Professor Richard Dawkins, with contributions from Dawkins' research assistant Yan Wong. It follows the path of humans backwards through evolutionary history, meeting humanity's cousins as they converge on common ancestors. It was published September 2004 by Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated; ISBN 0297825038
The narrative is structured as a pilgrimage, with all modern animals following their own path through history to the origin of life. Humans meet their cousins at rendezvous points along the way, the points at which species diverged. At each point Dawkins attempts to infer, from molecular and fossil evidence, the probable form of the ancestor and describes the modern animals that join humanity's growing travelling party. Lastly, a tale is presented on behalf of one such cousin, each one presenting a different aspect of evolutionary biology. This structure is inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
The pilgrimage visits a total of forty 'rendezvous points' from rendezvous zero, the most recent common ancestor of all of humanity, to rendezvous 39, eubacteria, the ancestor of all surviving organisms.
The book is dedicated to Dawkins' friend and mentor, population geneticist John Maynard Smith.
List of Rendezvous points
- Rendezvous 0: All Humankind
- Rendezvous 1: Chimpanzees (6,000,000 million years ago)
- Rendezvous 2: Gorillas (7,000,000)
- Rendezvous 3: Orang Utans (14,000,000)
- Rendezvous 4: Gibbons (18,000,000)
- Rendezvous 5: Old World Monkeys (25,000,000)
- Rendezvous 6: New World Monkeys (40,000,000)
- Rendezvous 7: Tarsiers (58,000,000)
- Rendezvous 8: Lemurs, Bushbabies and Their Kin (63,000,000)
- Rendezvous 9: Colugos and Tree Shrews (70,000,000)
- Rendezvous 10: Rodents and Rabbitkind (75,000,000)
- Rendezvous 11: Laurasiatheres (85,000,000)
- Rendezvous 12: Xenarthrans (95,000,000)
- Rendezvous 13: Afrotheres (105,000,000)
- Rendezvous 14: Marsupials (140,000,000)
- Rendezvous 15: Monotremes (180,000,0000
- Rendezvous 16: Sauropsids (310,000,000)
- Rendezvous 17: Amphibians (340,000,000)
- Rendezvous 18: Lungfish (417,000,000)
- Rendezvous 19: Coelacanths (425,000,000)
- Rendezvous 20: Ray-Finned Fish (440,000,000)
- Rendezvous 21: Sharks and Their Kin (460,000,000)
- Rendezvous 22: Lampreys and Hagfish (530,000,000)
- Rendezvous 23: Lancelets (560,000,000)
- Rendezvous 24: Sea Squirts (565,000,000)
- Rendezvous 25: Ambulacrarians (570,000,000)
- Rendezvous 26: Protostomes (590,000,000)
- Rendezvous 27: Acoelomorph Flatworms (630,000,000)
- Rendezvous 28: Cnidarians (680,000,000)
- Rendezvous 29: Ctenophores (730,000,000)
- Rendezvous 30: Placozoans (780,000,000)
- Rendezvous 31: Sponges (800,000,000)
- Rendezvous 32: Choanoflagellates (900,000,000)
- Rendezvous 33: Drips (?)
- Rendezvous 34: Fungi (?)
- Rendezvous 35: Amoebozoans (?)
- Rendezvous 36: Plants (?)
- Rendezvous 37: Uncertain (?)
- Rendezvous 38: Archaea (?)
- Rendezvous 39: Eubacteria (?)
| Richard Dawkins |
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| Books: The Selfish Gene - The Extended Phenotype - The Blind Watchmaker - River Out Of Eden - Climbing Mount Improbable - Unweaving the Rainbow - A Devil's Chaplain - The Ancestor's Tale |
| See also: W. D. Hamilton - Williams revolution - atheism - humanism - evolution - Lalla Ward |
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