The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life is a science book by Richard Dawkins and Yan Wong on the subject of evolution, which follows the path of humans backwards through evolutionary history, describing some of humanity's cousins as they converge on their common ancestors. The book was first published in 2004 and substantially updated in 2016. It was nominated for the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books. Synopsis The book takes a different path backwards through evolution and meets different groupings of organisms. The authors use backward chronology instead of a forward chronology as a way of celebrating the unity of life. In a 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 this planet. The evidence for this is that all organisms share the same genetic code and was not invented twice. There is no sign of other independent origins of life, and if new ones would now arise, they would probably be eaten. This book is a pilgrimage to discover our ancestors and meet other pilgrims (organisms) who join as the book reaches a common ancestor that man 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. Concestors The authors use the term concestor, coined by Nicky Warren, 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. Along the way, the authors introduce new pilgrims who join us on the trip backwards through time. Chapters Prologue Primates Non-primate mammals Non-mammal chordates Non-chordate animals From the lancelets onward, the authors provide dates under duress stating that "dating becomes so difficult and controversial that my courage fails me".