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The ancestor's tale : a pilgrimage to the dawn of evolution / Richard Dawkins ; with additional research by Yan Wong.

QH361 .D39 2004

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QH361 .D39 2004

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Format:: Book
Author/Creator:: Dawkins, Richard, 1941-
Contributor:: Wong, Yan.
Language:: English
Subjects (All):: Evolution (Biology)--History.; Evolution (Biology).; History.; Evolution (Biology)--Philosophy.
Physical Description:: xii, 673 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Place of Publication:: Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
Summary:: 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:: The Conceit of Hindsight 1; The Pilgrimage Begins 26; The Farmer's Tale 27; The Cro-Magnon's Tale 35; All Humankind 37; The Tasmanian's Tale 41; Eve's Tale 48; Archaic Homo Sapiens 62; 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; Chimpanzees 100; The Bonobo's Tale 104; Gorillas 106; The Gorilla's Tale 108; Orang Utans 112; The Orang Utan's Tale 115; Gibbons 119; The Gibbon's Tale 123; Old World Monkeys 137; New World Monkeys 141; The Howler Monkey's Tale 145; Tarsiers 156; Lemurs, Bushbabies and Their Kin 160; The Aye-Aye's Tale 163; The Great Cretaceous Catastrophe 169; Colugos and Tree Shrews 174; The Colugo's Tale 177; Rodents and Rabbitkind 179; The Mouse's Tale 183; The Beaver's Tale 186; Laurasiatheres 192; The Hippo's Tale 196; Epilogue to the Hippo's Tale 202; The Seal's Tale 203; Xenarthrans 212; The Armadillo's Tale 212; Afrotheres 217; Marsupials 223; The Marsupial Mole's Tale 227; Monotremes 231; The Duckbill's Tale 235; What the Star-Nosed Mole Said to the Duckbilled Platypus 243; Mammal-Like Reptiles 247; 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; Amphibians 293; The Salamander's Tale 299; The Narrowmouth's Tale 311; The Axolotl's Tale 313; Lungfish 320; The Lungfish's Tale 322; Coelacanths 325; 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; Sharks and Their Kin 349; Lampreys and Hagfish 354; The Lamprey's Tale 359; Lancelets 362; The Lancelet's Tale 364; Sea Squirts 367; Ambulacrarians 372; 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; Acoelomorph Flatworms 458; Cnidarians 463; The Jellyfish's Tale 467; The Polypifer's Tale 469; Ctenophores 477; Placozoans 480; Sponges 483; The Sponge's Tale 486; Choanoflagellates 488; The Choanoflagellate's Tale 490; Drips 493; Fungi 497; Amoebozoans 502; Plants 506; The Cauliflower's Tale 510; The Redwood's Tale 514; Uncertain 524; The Mixotrich's Tale 529; The Great Historic Rendezvous 536; Archaea 540; Eubacteria 543; The Rhizobium's Tale 543; Taq's Tale 553; Canterbury 559; The Host's Return 582.
Notes:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 624-645) and index.
ISBN:: 0618005838
OCLC:: 56617123

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The ancestor's tale : a pilgrimage to the dawn of evolution / Richard Dawkins ; with additional research by Yan Wong.

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