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The renowned biologist and thinker Richard Dawkins presents his most expansive work in this revised edition that offers a comprehensive look at evolution.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.
Sommario
CONTENTS
The Conceit of Hindsight 1
The General Prologue 12
The Pilgrimage Begins 26
The Farmer’s Tale 27
The Cro-Magnon’s Tale 35
Rendezvous 0 All Humankind 37
The Tasmanian’s Tale 41
Eve’s Tale 48
archaic homo sapiens62
The Neanderthal’s Tale 64
ergasts 66
The Ergast’s Tale 71
habilines 75
The Handyman’s Tale 77
ape-men 86
Little Foot’s Tale 90
Epilogue to Little Foot’s Tale 95
Rendezvous 1 Chimpanzees 100
The Bonobo’s Tale 104
Rendezvous 2 Gorillas 106
The Gorilla’s Tale 108
Rendezvous 3 Orang Utans 112
The Orang Utan’s Tale 115
Rendezvous 4 Gibbons 119
The Gibbon’s Tale 123
Rendezvous 5 Old World Monkeys 137
Rendezvous 6 New World Monkeys 141
The Howler Monkey’s Tale 145
Rendezvous 7 Tarsiers 156
Rendezvous 8 Lemurs, Bushbabies and Their Kin 160
The Aye-Aye’s Tale 163
THE GREAT CRETACEOUS CATASTROPHE 169
Rendezvous 9 Colugos and Tree Shrews 174
The Colugo’s Tale 177
Rendezvous 10 Rodents and Rabbitkind 179
The Mouse’s Tale 183
The Beaver’s Tale 186
Rendezvous 11 Laurasiatheres 192
The Hippo’s Tale 196
Epilogue to the Hippo’s Tale 202
The Seal’s Tale 203
Rendezvous 12 Xenarthrans 212
The Armadillo’s Tale 212
Rendezvous 13 Afrotheres 217
Rendezvous 14 Marsupials 223
The Marsupial Mole’s Tale 227
Rendezvous 15 Monotremes 231
The Duckbill’s Tale 235
What the Star-Nosed Mole Said to the Duckbilled Platypus 243
MAMMAL-LIKE REPTILES 247
Rendezvous 16 Sauropsids 254
Prologue to the Galapagos Finch’s Tale 257
The Galapagos Finch’s Tale 260
The Peacock’s Tale 263
The Dodo’s Tale 273
The Elephant Bird’s Tale 278
Epilogue to the Elephant Bird’s Tale 287
Rendezvous 17 Amphibians 293
The Salamander’s Tale 299
The Narrowmouth’s Tale 311
The Axolotl’s Tale 313
Rendezvous 18 Lungfish 320
The Lungfish’s Tale 322
Rendezvous 19 Coelacanths 325
Rendezvous 20 Ray-Finned Fish 328
The Leafy Sea Dragon’s Tale 330
The Pike’s Tale 332
The Mudskipper’s Tale 334
The Cichlid’s Tale 336
The Blind Cave Fish’s Tale 344
The Flounder’s Tale 347
Rendezvous 21 Sharks and their kin 349
Rendezvous 22 Lampreys and Hagfish 354
The Lamprey’s Tale 359
Rendezvous 23 Lancelets 362
The Lancelet’s Tale 364
Rendezvous 24 Sea Squirts 367
Rendezvous 25 Ambulacrarians 372
Rendezvous 26 Protostomes 377
The Ragworm’s Tale 386
The Brine Shrimp’s Tale 390
The Leaf Cutter’s Tale 395
The Grasshopper’s Tale 397
The Fruit Fly’s Tale 414
The Rotifer’s Tale 424
The Barnacle’s Tale 433
The Velvet Worm’s Tale 436
Epilogue to the Velvet Worm’s Tale 449
Rendezvous 27 Acoelomorph Flatworms 458
Rendezvous 28 Cnidarians 463
The Jellyfish’s Tale 467
The Polypifer’s Tale 469
Rendezvous 29 Ctenophores 477
Rendezvous 30 Placozoans 480
Rendezvous 31 Sponges 483
The Sponge’s Tale 486
Rendezvous 32 Choanoflagellates 488
The Choanoflagellate’s Tale 490
Rendezvous 33 DRIPs 493
Rendezvous 34 Fungi 497
Rendezvous 35 Amoebozoans 502
Rendezvous 36 Plants 506
The Cauliflower’s Tale 510
The Redwood’s Tale 514
Rendezvous 37 Uncertain 524
The Mixotrich’s Tale 529
The Great Historic Rendezvous 536
Rendezvous 38 Archaea 540
Rendezvous 39 Eubacteria 543
The Rhizobium’s Tale 543
Taq’s Tale 553
Canterbury 559
The Host’s Return 582
Further Reading 617
Notes to the Phylogenies 619
Bibliography 624
Illustration Credits 643
Index 646
Info autore
RICHARD DAWKINS is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. He is the author of 15 books including
Unweaving the Rainbow, A Devil’s Chaplain, and
The God Delusion.Dawkins lives in Oxford.,
Riassunto
The renowned biologist and thinker Richard Dawkins presents his most expansive work in this revised edition that offers a comprehensive look at evolution.
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.
Testo aggiuntivo
"This clever approach to our extended family tree should prove a natural hit with science readers." Publishers Weekly, Starred
"One of Dawkins's best: a big, almost encyclopedic compendium bursting with information and ideas." Kirkus Reviews, Starred
"This is an ambitious, important book rich with fascinating insights. Also, it couldn't come at a better time." --Carl Zimmer The New York Times Book Review
"Our complete evolutionary story, brilliantly recounted by Dawkins." --Jonathan Keats, Popular Science
"The most modest and winning of his eight books." --John Horgan, Discover
