Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T07:52:44.015Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - Making Sense with Stories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2022

Ronald A. Jenner
Affiliation:
Natural History Museum, London
Get access

Summary

Finally, in this chapter I offer a concluding meditation on the undiminished value, indeed the necessity, of evolutionary storytelling, if our goal is to go beyond the trees and try to understand what may have happened along life’s myriad evolving lineages. As soon as one looks at a tree and asks ‘what does this mean?’, one becomes an evolutionary storyteller. Some dismiss such stories as pure fiction, and would prefer not to go beyond the tree. But for those of us who wish to peer over the phylogenetic frontier, these stories are how we generate our understanding of evolution, or at least how we try to.

Type
Chapter
Information
Ancestors in Evolutionary Biology
Linear Thinking about Branching Trees
, pp. 327 - 335
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×