The Ancestor's Tale

510 Pages·2005·29.48 MB·English

by  Richard Dawkins

THE ANCESTOR'S TALE
By the same author: The
Selfish Gene The Extended
Phenotype The Blind
Watchmaker River Out of
Eden Climbing Mount
Improbable Unweaving the
Rainbow A Devil's Chaplain
T A ' T
HE NCESTOR S ALE
A P
ILGRIMAGE TO
D L
THE AWN OF IFE

RICHARD DAWKINS
with additional research by YAN WONG

WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON
John Maynard Smith (1920-2004)
He saw a draft and graciously accepted the dedication,
which now, sadly, must become
In Memoriam
'Never mind the lectures or the "workshops"; be Mowed to the motor
coach excursions to local beauty spots; forget your fancy visual
aids and radio microphones; the only thing that really matters at a
conference is that John Maynard Smith must be in residence and
there must be a spacious, convivial bar. If he can't manage the
dates you have in mind, you must just reschedule the conference..
.He will charm and amuse the young research workers, listen to
their stories, inspire them, rekindle enthusiasms that might be
flagging, and send them back to their laboratories or their muddy
fields, enlivened and invigorated, eager to try out the new ideas he
has generously shared with them.'
It isn't only conferences that will never be the same again.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I was persuaded to write this book by Anthony Cheetham, founder of Orion
Books. The fact that he had moved on before the book was published reflects my
unconscionable delay in finishing it. Michael Dover tolerated that delay with
humour and fortitude, and always encouraged me by his swift and intelligent
understanding of what I was trying to do. The best of his many good decisions
was to engage Latha Menon as a freelance editor. As with A Devil's Chaplain,
Latha's support has been beyond all estimation. Her grasp of the big picture
simultaneously with the details, her encyclopaedic knowledge, her love of
science and her selfless devotion to promoting it have benefited me, and this
book, in more ways than I can count. Others at the publishers helped greatly,
but Jennie Condell and the designer, Ken Wilson, went beyond the call of duty.
My research assistant Yan Wong has been intimately involved at every stage
of the planning, researching and writing of the book. His resourcefulness and
detailed familiarity with modern biology have been matched only by his green
fingers with computers. If, here, I have gratefully assumed the role of
apprentice, it could be said that he was my apprentice before I was his, for I was
his tutor at New College. He then did his doctorate under the supervision of
Alan Grafen, once my own graduate student, so I suppose Yan could be called
my grandstudent as well as my student. Apprentice or master, Yan's
contribution has been so great that, for certain tales, I have insisted on adding
his name as joint author. When Yan left to cycle across Patagonia, the book in
its final stages benefited greatly from Sam Turvey's extraordinary knowledge of
zoology and his conscientious care in deploying it.
Advice and help of various kinds were willingly given by Michael Yudkin,
Mark Griffith, Steve Simpson, Angela Douglas, George McGavin, Jack Pettigrew,
George Barlow, Colin Blakemore, John Mollon, Henry Bennet-Clark, Robin
Elisabeth Cornwell, Lindell Bromham, Mark Sutton, Bethia Thomas, Eliza
Howlett, Tom Kemp, Malgosia Nowak-Kemp, Richard Fortey, Derek Siveter, Alex
Freeman, Nicky Warren, A. V. Grimstone, Alan Cooper, and especially Christine
DeBlase-Ballstadt. Others are acknowledged in the Notes at the end.
I am deeply grateful to Mark Ridley and Peter Holland, who were engaged by
the publishers as critical readers and gave me exactly the right kind of advice.
The routine authorial claim of responsibility for the remaining shortcomings is
more than usually necessary in my case.
As always, I gratefully acknowledge the imaginative generosity of Charles
Simonyi. And my wife, Lalla Ward, has once again been my help and strength.
RICHARD DAWKINS
CONTENTS THE CONCEIT OF HINDSIGHT S
THE GENERAL PROLOGUE 16 THE
PILGRIMAGE BEGINS 27
The Farmer's Tale 28
The Cro-Magnon's Tale 34
ALL HUMANKIND 36
The Tasmanian's Tale 39
Eve's Tale 44 ARCHAIC HOMO
SAPIENS 56
The Neanderthal's Tale 58
ERGASTS 59
The Ergast's Tale 63
HABILINES 68
The Handyman's Tale 69
APE-MEN 77
Little Foot's Tale 80
Epilogue to Little Foot's Tale 84
CHIMPANZEES 88
The Bonobo's Tale 92
GORILLAS 94
The Gorilla's Tale 95
ORANG UTANS 98
The Orang Utan's Tale 99
GIBBONS 104
The Gibbon's Tale 107
OLD WORLD MONKEYS 118
NEW WORLD MONKEYS 122
The Howler Monkey's Tale 125
TARSIERS 134
LEMURS, BUSHBABIES
AND THEIR KIN 1
The Aye-Aye's Tale 140
THE GREAT CRETACEOUS CATASTROPHE
COLUGOS AND TREE SHREWS 148
The Colugo's Tale 150
RODENTS AND RABBITKIND 152
The Mouse's Tale 155
The Beaver's Tale 157
LAURASIATHERES 162
The Hippo's Tale 165
Epilogue to the Hippo's Tale 170
The Seal's Tale 171