Summary & Study Guide - The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life

By Lee Tang

This is the story of some of biology’s most incredible discoveries.

This book is a summary of “The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life,” by David Quammen.

One of the central insights in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was that life branched like a tree. Over a century later, scientists used DNA sequences to reexamine the history of life and found that the tree of life is tangled. Humans are likely descended from single-cell organisms which we didn’t know existed fifty years ago. Genes don’t just move vertically. They also pass laterally across species lines. Eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance, but sideways through viral infections.

The Tangled Tree chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them. It explains how molecular studies of evolution have brought startling recognition about the tangled tree of life.

Read this book to get a new understanding of evolution and the history of life.

This guide includes:
* Book Summary—helps you understand the key concepts.
* Online Videos—cover the concepts in more depth.
Value-added from this guide:
* Save time
* Understand key concepts
* Expand your nowledge

• Language: English
• Publisher: LMT Press
• Release date: May 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781988970295

Lee Tang

Lee Tang is a retired executive of a major global insurance company. Prior to his retirement, he has worked as an actuary, a risk officer and a chief financial officer for several major insurance organizations in the United States, Canada, and Taiwan. To learn more about Lee and his work, visit his website and blog at https://lmtpress.wordpress.com. You can reach him by email at [e-mail].

Book preview

This is the story of some of biology’s most incredible discoveries.

This book is a summary of The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life, by David Quammen.

One of the central insights in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was that life branched like a tree. Over a century later, scientists used DNA sequences to reexamine the history of life and found that the tree of life is tangled. Humans are likely descended from single-cell organisms which we didn’t know existed fifty years ago. Genes don’t just move vertically. They also pass laterally across species lines. Eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance, but sideways through viral infections.

The Tangled Tree chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them. It explains how molecular studies of evolution have brought startling recognition about the tangled tree of life.

Read this book to get a new understanding of evolution and the history of life.

This guide includes:

Book Summary—helps you understand the key concepts.

Online Videos—cover the concepts in more depth.

Value-added from this guide:

Save time

Understand key concepts

Expand your knowledge

Important Note About This Guide

This guide is a summary and not a critique/review of the book. The summary may not be organized chapter-wise but summarizes the book’s main ideas, viewpoints, and arguments. It is NOT meant to be a replacement, but a supplement to help you understand the book’s key ideas and recommendations.

Title: Summary & Study Guide - The Tangled Tree

Subtitle: A Radical New History of Life

Author: Lee Tang

Publisher: LMT Press (lmtpress.wordpress.com)

Copyright © 2019 by Lee Tang

All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

First Edition: November 2019

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 9781988970295 (ebook)

ISBN 9781698072494 (paperback)

ISBN 9781078730594 (paperback)

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and author make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of these contents and disclaim all warranties such as warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. The website addresses in the book were correct at the time going to print. However, the publisher and author are not responsible for the content of third-party websites, which are subject to change.

To my wife, Lillian, who is the source of energy and love for everything I do, and to Andrew and Amanda: watching you grow up has been a privilege.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Three Surprises: An Introduction

1. Darwin’s Little Sketch

2. A Separate Form of Life

3. Mergers and Acquisitions

4. Big Tree

5. Infective Heredity

6. Topiary

7. E Pluribus Human

Index

About the Author

Three Surprises: An Introduction

Life in the universe is a peculiar phenomenon confined to the planet Earth. There have been crucial transitions in evolutionary history, including some improbable incidents of convergence. Change those few contingencies and everything would be different—animals and plants wouldn’t exist.

In the mid-1970s, scientists used DNA sequences to reexamine the history of life. They discovered three big surprises about who we are, what we are, and how life has evolved on Earth.

The first surprise involves the discovery of a new category of life—the archaea—which had been mistaken for subgroups of bacteria. This discovery revealed that present-day life at the