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The Ancestor's Tale

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The Ancestor's Tale

By: Richard Dawkins
Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
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About this listen

 The Ancestor's Tale is a pilgrimage back through time - a journey on which we meet up with fellow pilgrims as we and they converge on our common ancestors. Chimpanzees join us at about six million years in the past, gorillas at seven million years, orangutans at 14 million years, as we stride on together, a growing band.

The journey provides the setting for a collection of some 40 tales. Each explores an aspect of evolutionary biology through the stories of characters met along the way or glimpsed from afar: the Elephant Bird's Tale, the Marsupial Mole's Tale, the Lungfish's Tale. Together they give a deep understanding of the processes that have shaped life on Earth: convergent evolution, the isolation of populations, continental drift, and the great extinctions.

©2004 Richard Dawkins (P)2004 Orion Publishing Group Ltd Biological Sciences Biology Evolution Evolution & Genetics Genetics Science Natural History Palaeontology Elephant
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incredible well written. beautiful thesis.
this book opened up a whole world of knowledge to me.

awesome book

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I thoroughly appreciated the engaging dialogue between Richard Dawkins and his wife during the narration. Their exchange resembled a lively and mutually informative conversation, thoughtfully interspersed with moments of levity. Both narrators exhibited a remarkable skill in maintaining a delicate balance throughout the reading. "The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life," a 2004 popular science book authored by Richard Dawkins with valuable contributions from his research assistant, Yan Wong, retraces humanity's evolutionary journey, offering encounters with our distant relatives as they converge upon common ancestors. This audiobook not only upholds the essence of the written work but elevates the experience with its masterful delivery.

A Delicious Frolic

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In my opinion, this is Dawkins' finest book... and that's saying a lot!

It's as jam packed with fascinating facts, as carefully thought out, and as immaculately articulated as any of his other books... but for sheer delightful readability, and cunning conceived story, and creative linkages, this book surely beats them all.

Dawkins' finest!

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