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Hutom Pyancha (hutom_pyancha)
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Wednesday, November 28 2007

Ancestors’ Tale : An evolutionary chronology

Ancestors’ Tale is another beautiful piece of literature by Richard Dawkins on evolutionary biology. Written in a true Dawkins style, this book explains the stages of evolution in planet earth. Dawkins is an expert in this field and he explained the complex aspects of evolution in a way so that even people without backgrounds in biology can understand.

According to Dawkins’ own admission this book is written in the style of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales; Like Canterbury Tales, here human beings start a “pilgrimage”. Just as the pilgrims in Canterbury Tales want to meet God at the end of their journey, the Dawkins’ pilgrims want to meet their oldest ancestor….the ancestor who is the forefather of all living beings on earth today.

In this book, Dawkins takes readers to a backward journey tracing the path of evolution. Just like in Chaucer’s masterpiece, at every important juncture along this backward journey, we are joined by other “pilgrims” and continue our journey together into farther along the road. These newly joined “pilgrims” are other living beings who evolved in a separate branch of evolution.

For example, in the backward journey we (human beings) meet chimpanzees in the first junction and then we continue our journey along with them. In next junction, we (both human beings and chimpanzees) meet other apes from the great ape family and so on.

At each stage, as we meet other pilgrims, Dawkins explains why we would expect them to meet at that juncture. He cites and explains the proof from genetics, paleontology, geology etc. As we move deeper and deeper into the past, such proofs become less direct and more difficult to find. Dawkins explained these proofs (or lack of them) at every stage and the theories supporting them and the possible margin of errors.

Things are a bit hazy and inconclusive (as expected) towards the end of path, still it describes a good chronology of evolution. This book is written by an expert of the subject and hence the facts are right; at the same time the author has a command over the language which makes it pleasant to read. Scientific facts are described in such a free flowing way that anybody can grasp them.

This is an interesting book written in a lucid manner and will definitely satisfy the intellectual appetite of the reader.

********* read my blogs at http://theworldandtheaffairs.blogspot.com/ ***********************

Last modified: 2008-08-27 13:37:07
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