We look at the theory of RNA world, in speculating about the first replicators in the primordial soup. There is only one pinnacle, and that is at the origin of life, where all divergent species come together. Dawkins corrects from the start the anthropocentric notion we have of ourselves as the pinnacle of Evolution. We puzzle together in the flatworms tale about the unlikely origins of sex, and with it the male gender, or gawp at the psychedelic bizarreness of the Velvet worm "Hallucigenia" and the significance of the "Cambrian Explosion". Or the Hippo ancestors tale, from the middle of which lineage sprang all Whales, making Hippos closer to Whales than to any land animals. Like the duck billed platypus, mocked for its bill, which is in fact is a stunning piece of technology, resembling AWAKS radar - it is an electro and pressure sensor laden probe for detecting minuscule muscle movements of prey in muddy water. The Ancestors Tale is a treasure chest of amazing accounts.
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