The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life is a science book by Richard Dawkins and Yan Wong that delves into the topic of evolution. The book adopts a unique approach, retracing the path of humans in reverse chronological order through evolutionary history. Along the way, it introduces readers to various species, referred to as humanity's cousins, as they converge on shared common ancestors. Drawing on scientific principles and research, "The Ancestor's Tale" offers an accessible and thought-provoking exploration of life's origins and the intricate relationships that connect all living beings.
The book follows a path backwards in time through evolution and meets different groupings of organisms. In this backward chronology, the ancestors of any set of species must eventually meet at a particular moment. The last common ancestor is the one that they all share which the authors call a "concestor". The oldest concestor is the ancestor of all surviving life forms on Earth. The evidence for this is that all organisms share the same genetic code and it is not thought that this code was invented twice. There is no sign of other independent origins of life, and as the book explains, if new life did now arise, its organisms would probably be quickly eaten by existing lifeforms.
The Ancestor's Tale" follows what it calls a "pilgrimage", to discover our ancestors and meet other "pilgrims" (i.e. groups of species) who join as the book reaches a common ancestor that humanity shares with them. The reader reads of 40 rendezvous before hitting the origin of life itself.
The book's structure is inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's late-14th century work The Canterbury Tales and its pilgrims. For instance, how new species come about, how the axolotl never needs to mature, how hard it is to classify animals, and why our fish-like ancestors moved to the land.
The authors use the term concestor, coined by Nicky Warren,[1]: 11 for the most recent common ancestor at each rendezvous point. At each rendezvous point, we meet the concestor of ourselves and the listed species or collection of species. The concestor does not have to have been much like those creatures. After the "rendezvous", our fellow "pilgrims" have had as much time to evolve and change as we have.[1]: 10 Along the way, the authors introduce new pilgrims who join us on the trip backwards through time.[1]
From the lancelets onward, the authors provide dates under duress stating that "dating becomes so difficult and controversial that my courage fails me".
There are essential differences between the 1st and 2nd editions of the book in this section. Another rendezvous has been added (#33), and the unknown rendezvous has been partially resolved.
This is a significantly shorter section in the second edition. The authors describe the critical beginnings of eukaryotic cells and describe the endosymbiotic theory proposed by Lynn Margulis.
Prokaryotes can move genetic material between unicellular and multicellular organisms other than by the ("vertical") transmission of DNA from parent to offspring by way of horizontal gene transfer.
The authors elaborate at length about the possible origins of life through the RNA world, enterobacteria phage Qbeta, the Miller–Urey experiment, Spiegelman's Monster and the possible hypercycle of DNA, RNA, and enzymes which work together to support each other in a primordial world.[1]: 661
Carl Zimmer of the New York Times stated that the book is one of the best to understand evolutionary trees.[4]
The Guardian thought it was awkward to move backward in time starting from humans and thought this required linguistic gymnastics with new definitions of before and after a certain evolutionary point.[5] Matt Ridley at The Guardian liked the approach of a Chaucer Pilgrim traveling backwards and the perspective of not seeing other animals as failures.[6]
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