The Ancestor's Tale
by Richard Dawkins · first published 2004
88% recommend13% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Walks backward through evolutionary history from humans to the origin of life, stopping at each shared ancestor. Accessible despite its length, it works as a broad overview of evolution, even ahead of The Selfish Gene.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The Ancestor's Tale describes the various processes involved in the development of life on Earth. Enormously rich and diverse, it includes the results of recent research that, using dna analysis, has led to some surprising insights into evolutionary history. The fundamental, unifying principle of evolution underlies this unique history - our history, and that of all living things. This masterpiece by Dawkins shows us how special we are, how amazing our history is, and how closely related we are to the rest of life on Earth.
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The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins looks at our ancestry right back to the start of life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancestor%27s_Tale It looks at a list of different species and then considers the most recent…
on “Family trees: Tracing the world's ancestor” ↗If you find this kind of thing interesting I can strongly recommend "The Ancestor's Tale" by Richard Dawkins which looks at ~40 common ancestors we have, not just the common ancestors of all humanity, but common ancestors with chimps, gorillas, all the way back to the Last Universal Ancestor…
on “Father of all humankind is 340,000 years old” ↗In Ancestor's Tale [highly recommended] Richard Dawkins describes the incredible sensory organ that is the Duck Billed Platypus's bill as a marvel of evolution. He points out that "being primitive is not a full time way…
on “Newly-Hired Apple VP of Technology Kevin Lynch Is a Bozo, a Bad Hire” ↗The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins is a great book. Interestingly, he makes a point that because genes are shuffled, it is possible for the descendants from a common ancestor not to have a single gene from him.
on “Family trees: Tracing the world's ancestor” ↗…http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/03... Life of Pi http://www.amazon.com/Life-Pi-Yann-Martel/dp/0156027321 Billions and Billions http://www.amazon.com/Billions-Thoughts-Death-Brink-Millenni... The Ancestor's Tale http://www.amazon.com/Ancestors-Tale-Pilgrimage-Dawn-Evoluti... Sorry for suggesting so many, I couldn't help myself
on “Ask HN: What book should I read next?” ↗The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins... this book starts at human-bonobo-chimpanzee split and goes backward into a LOT of evolutionary history, including scientific discoveries and different branches of the evolutionary…
on “Ask HN: Books that altered your view of reality” ↗Agree that the Wikipedia page doesn't do it justice. Richard Dawkins does an excellent job discussing the "monster" and providing context regarding theories on the origin of life in his book, The Ancestor's Tale. The "monster" comes near the end of the book since it's a backward march through time. It's a 700 page book, but so worth the read. http://www.amazon.com/Ancestors-Tale-Pilgrimage-Dawn-Evoluti...
on “Spiegelman's Monster” ↗The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins. None of his militant atheism. Just a brilliant and engaging work on evolutionary biology.
on “Ask HN: What books have most influenced the way you see the world?” ↗Recommend two nice books on this: the ancestor's tale by Richard Dawkins and Otherlands by Thomas Halliday. Both absolute page turners!
on “Project pushes back the hominid timeline in Africa by more than 10M years” ↗For a complementary take on this, I'd recommend 'The Ancestor's Tale' [0] by Richard Dawkins. It goes backwards through time, focussing on the points where our history branches from a common ancestor to different modern 'cousins'. In other words, similarly to the tree…
on “Tree of Life Explorer” ↗…it is probably my favourite book of all time. Also, Bill Bryson’s “Short History of Nearly Everything”. Brian Greene’s “The Fabric of the Cosmos” (and all of his other books) Richard Dawkins’ “The Ancestor’s Tale” and “The Blind Watchmaker” are also amazing. Fiction: Adrian Czajkowski‘s “Children of Time” and Orson Scott Card‘s “Ender’s Game” are both anong my favourites.
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗…contributed interesting, novel, scientific & philosophical points to the discussion over the years" Certainly! I think his biology writing is terrific. I've certainly learned a lot from the man. "The Ancestor's Tale" is one of my top five favorite books of all time. On the other hand, his religious writing is essentially what you find on atheism.reddit.com. Nuance? You won't get it from this man on this topic. It's…
on “Richard Dawkins: Viruses of the Mind ” ↗Some books: "The Fountainhead" - gave me the gift of self-confidence "The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution" - helps me understand where I come from and where I fit in the Biosphere "The Use of Knowledge in Society" - This, along with other pieces on economics and capitalist…
on “Articles, Ideas, Books and/or Concepts that have changed your life” ↗…weekly instruction, to a Roman Catholic nun. What chance has she?" "What chance has she?". God forbid she grow up to be a Catholic. The way Dawkins phrases it, she might as well be dead. I loved "The Ancestor's Tale", though, Richard! One of the four best books I've ever read.
on “Viruses of the Mind - Richard Dawkins on Religion” ↗Agreed. There wasn't one thing in Sapiens that I hadn't already encountered in another book (sometimes written a decade or more earlier). I would recommend The Great Human Diasporas by Cavalli-Sforza, Ancestor's Tale by Dawkins, and Against the Gods by Bernstein to tickle similar parts of your brain.
on “By eating them, hyenas gathered 9 Neanderthal skeletons in one cave” ↗