The Ancestor's Tale
The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life is a 2004 popular science book by 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. Dawkins's longest book to date, it was nominated for the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books.
Synopsis
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 evolutionary cousins at rendezvous points along the way, the points at which the lineage diverged. At each point Dawkins attempts to infer, from molecular and fossil evidence, the probable form of the most recent common ancestor and describes the modern animals that join humanity's growing travelling party. This structure is inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
The pilgrimage visits a total of 40 "rendezvous points" from rendezvous zero, the most recent common ancestor of all of humanity, to rendezvous 39, eubacteria, the ancestor of all surviving organisms. Though Dawkins is confident of the essential shape of this phylogenetic taxonomy, he enters caveats on a small number of branch points where a compelling weight of evidence had not been assembled at the time of writing.
Podcasts:
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by Ty
The Tale
by: Ty[Ty talking]
'Yes. This is a cautionary tale.
You can ... take it any which way you wanna.
I mean no disrespect in part two.
As we just ... alright ... let me ...' [Ty's voice fades]
It was a sunny afternoon, somewhere between April, May or maybe June
The year had been quite busy
and I was just taking a break from having to make a tune
I was chilling with my cousin rude boys undercover just ...
watching the place
Sitting opposite the tube
and this girl walked up and said 'I recognise your face.
Your name's Ty isn't it? I seen you in this and that magazine'
I was quite chuffed really,
looked slightly at my cousin and we both said 'seen!'
One month later she phones me up
'I'm in the area, can I come up?' I'm like 'please!'
Turned to my brethren said
'I love you like a brother, but BRUSH you got to leave!'
[Tee talking]
'You know what I'm saying? You got to leave! If you met this girl right,
you'd understand. You - have - got - to - go. Thank you.'
Check my reflection in the mirror,
spray a little air fresh, splash a little brute
Answer the intercom, 'is Tee there?' Oh,, she sounds cute!
I take her jacket and she's left with a white dress going from here to here
I offer her a drink, but she only wants water, I'm like 'oh each!'
The conversation goes from vague adult chat to thinly veiled come on's
Blood leaves my brain, my whole body's a drum stick ... anxious to drum on
How shall I approach this? I'm virtually brain dead plus the line's busy
I begin with a little friendly WWF and touch the titty!
[Girl talking, Ty whistling in background]
'Hold on, what are you doing? What are you doing? Are you trying to touch
any of this? Who are you? Just because ...' [Girl's voice fades]
Felt so ashamed! Had to excuse myself by pretending to take the piss
Walked to the mirror, splashed water on my face and said 'man what is this?'
Get a grip Ben, just because the girl's here doesn't mean you're in
Ha, this sexy bullshit can mess up the play
and make you think your love is king
[Ty talking]
'Ohhh boy. Listen ...
you know when you're in one of those predicaments where it's like,
just, oh what can I say, I can't say ...' [Ty's voice fades]
I left the bathroom with a clear head,
expecting her to moan, apologetic in the worst way
She's butt naked on the sofa,
smiling like a joker 'T-Y it's your birthdayyy!'
[Ty talking]
'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, y'know, no!
You don't, listen, you don't have to ask me what happened next!
Anyway, lets just say ... mighty fun was had by all!