#16 in Popular science
The Ancestor's Tale
- 673
- Pages
- about 12 h
- Reading time
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About the book
The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life is a popular science book by the evolutionary biologists Richard Dawkins and Yan Wong. It retraces the history of life in reverse chronological order: A growing band of species meet their most recent common ancestors (concestors) at 40 rendezvous points. First published in 2004, it was updated in 2016 to reflect recent discoveries. Many reviewers described it as Dawkins's magnum opus.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.5 across 54 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 26% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Popular science average of 8.3. That is how 8.4 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 9.6 | 5 | 9% |
| Hardcover | 8.4 | 49 | 91% |
Reader voices
The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).
“- Not quite as interesting as some of his other books, but it was a fun review of how we came to where we are. - I enjoyed the part toward the end of the book where he explored what would happen if we could…”
“The uniqueness of this book is not the evolutionary biological history of the world, but the manner in which Dawkins narrates its. Hopping back in a reverse chronological order, rendezvousing with the previous known ancestor, is reminiscent of the images of marches of groups of…”
Frequently asked
How long is The Ancestor's Tale?
It has 673 pages — longer than 96% of the ranked books in Popular science.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Popular science — with scores between 8.3 and 8.4, closest to this book.
