Anyone interested in the origins of species cannot ignore Richard Dawkins. In 1976, the British evolutionary biologist caused a lot of conversation with “The Selfish Gene”. While society argued about egoism as a biological principle, he wanted to shift the focus away from species preservation and towards genetic information. 50 years later, he chooses a different focus.
His new work is originally called “The Genetic Book of the Dead”. In it he describes how billions of years of evolution have shaped life on Earth and left traces to this day. Because every living being carries within itself the genetic memory of all ancestors. This goes back to bacteria and simple single-celled organisms.
Dawkins explains his idea of evolution with numerous examples, excellently illustrated by Jana Lenzová. They show impressively: Evolution does not know where it is heading. She doesn’t plan, she reacts and improvises. The ancestors of turtles once left the sea and adapted to life on land. They later went back into the water for unknown reasons. Today’s sea turtles stayed there. Some, however, went ashore again. The tortoises developed from them. Dawkins is convinced that future biologists will be able to reconstruct the turtles’ journey in detail from the genes of living animals. This also applies to us humans and our origins. If we have back pain from sitting so much, it is not least because our spine was created when our great-great-great ancestors still walked on four legs.
The book reads like a sequel to “The Selfish Gene” after almost 50 years, albeit far less provocative. If the 85-year-old’s insights don’t seem revolutionary enough, you should definitely read the book to the end. Beware of spoilers! In the final chapter, Dawkins presents a new view of evolution. He describes the gene pool of a species as a gigantic colony of viruses that have only one goal: to travel into the future. Michael Long
Richard Dawkins
The Big Book of Evolution
Hoffmann and Campe Verlag, 464 pages, € 39.–
ISBN 978-3-455-02073-1