"A Mariner book."

"The New York times book review ... notable book of the year 2004"--Cover

Includes bibliographical references (p. 624-642) and index

The conceit of hindsight -- The general prologue -- The pilgrimage begins -- Rendezvous 0. All humankind -- Archaic Homo sapiens -- Ergasts -- Habilines -- Ape-men -- Rendezvous 1. Chimpanzees -- Rendezvous 2. Gorillas -- Rendezvous 3. Orang utans -- Rendezvous 4. Gibbons -- Rendezvous 5. Old world monkeys -- Rendezvous 6. New world monkeys -- Rendezvous 7. Tarsiers -- Rendezvous 8. Lemurs, bushbabies and their kin -- The great cretaceous catastrophe -- Rendezvous 9. Colugos and the tree shrews -- Rendezvous 10. Rodents and rabbitkind -- Rendezvous 11. Laurasiatheres -- Rendezvous 12. Xenarthrans -- Rendezvous 13. Afrotheres -- Rendezvous 14. Marsupials -- Rendezvous 15. Monotremes -- Mammal-like reptiles -- Rendezvous 16. Sauropsids -- Rendezvous 17. Amphibians -- Rendezvous 18. Lungfish -- Rendezvous 19. Coelacanths -- Rendezvous 20. Ray-finned fish -- Rendezvous 21. Sharks and their kin -- Rendezvous 22. Lampreys and hagfish -- Rendezvous 23. Lancelets -- Rendezvous 24. Sea squirts -- Rendezvous 25. Ambulacrarians -- Rendezvous 26. Protostomes -- Rendezvous 27. Acoelomorph flatworms -- Rendezvous 28. Cnidarians -- Rendezvous 29. Ctenophores -- Rendezvous 30. Placozoans -- Rendezvous 31. Sponges -- Rendezvous 32. Choanoflagellates -- Rendezvous 33. Drips -- Rendezvous 34. Fungi -- Rendezvous 35. Amoebozoans -- Rendezvous 36. Plants -- Rendezvous 37. Uncertain -- The great historic rendezvous -- Rendezvous 38. Archaea -- Rendezvous 39. Eubacteria -- Canterbury -- The host's return

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' 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' 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