THE ANCESTOR'S TALE: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Time by Richard Dawkins (Weidenfeld, £25)

IT IS a field of study that has plodded along with steady deliberation as experts have delved into the origins of man. But the world of paleontology has taken leaps and bounds in recent weeks with discoveries that have rocked the world.

First came the excavation in Indonesia of the so-called Hobbit, which has forced a revision of what it is to be human. A direct descendant of a common ancestor, the tiny being lived alongside us until 18,000 years ago and could even still exist out there.

That revelation was still being digested when scientists revealed they had found fossilised remains of what could be the last common ancestor of all apes (including us).

It is a shame that Richard Dawkins' latest book should have just missed these discoveries. But then his absorbing narrative was only intended to trace our ancestors and their connections with other living species. And it still places these latest finds in a broader context, as he takes the reader backwards through time, meeting common ancestors (or concestors) to the proverbial slime from which all things sprang.

He dispels the notion that we are on the apex of the pyramid of life, pointing out that worms did not evolve further only because they were good at what they did.

Dawkins identifies 39 confluences between humans and all other lifeforms; the first being with the chimpanzees six million years ago, while the biggest gap is 130 million years, during the dinosaur years. Along the way, Dawkins picks out various species to illustrate the fascinating mechanisms of evolution. Distilling years of knowledge, he has succeeded in making an intimidating subject more accessible to a wider audience.

Gavin Engelbrecht

Published: ??/??/2004