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A SELFISH READ
What Richard
Dawkins Reads:
Jerry Coyne, Helena
Cronin and More
The evolutionary biologist talks to Josh
Dzieza about books that explain the jaw-
dropping accuracy and reach of Darwin’s
natural selection.
Josh Dzieza
09.27.12 4:45 AM ET
Darwin’s Rottweiler for his ‘Making a Murderer’: The Theory That Could
Free Steven Avery
ferocious defense of NICK SCHAGER
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-richard-dawkins-reads-jerry-coyne-helena-cronin-and-more 2/13
10/29/2018 What Richard Dawkins Reads: Jerry Coyne, Helena Cronin and More
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-richard-dawkins-reads-jerry-coyne-helena-cronin-and-more 3/13
10/29/2018 What Richard Dawkins Reads: Jerry Coyne, Helena Cronin and More
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-richard-dawkins-reads-jerry-coyne-helena-cronin-and-more 4/13
10/29/2018 What Richard Dawkins Reads: Jerry Coyne, Helena Cronin and More
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-richard-dawkins-reads-jerry-coyne-helena-cronin-and-more 5/13
10/29/2018 What Richard Dawkins Reads: Jerry Coyne, Helena Cronin and More
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-richard-dawkins-reads-jerry-coyne-helena-cronin-and-more 6/13
10/29/2018 What Richard Dawkins Reads: Jerry Coyne, Helena Cronin and More
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-richard-dawkins-reads-jerry-coyne-helena-cronin-and-more 7/13
10/29/2018 What Richard Dawkins Reads: Jerry Coyne, Helena Cronin and More
modern evolutionary
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theorists whom you could call
Darwinians,” Dawkins says.
“It’s a book on the history of
ideas showing how a
divergence that began in the
19th century persists even to
this day, and it’s a beautifully
written book.”
Williams is an evolutionary
biologist, and Nesse is a
psychiatrist. This book uses
Darwinian evolution to
explain phenomena like the
decrease of appetite during a
fever. Dawkins thinks all
doctors ought to read the
book. “They know a lot about
medicine, know a lot about
anatomy, know a lot about
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-richard-dawkins-reads-jerry-coyne-helena-cronin-and-more 8/13
10/29/2018 What Richard Dawkins Reads: Jerry Coyne, Helena Cronin and More
Splendid IsolationBy
George Gaylord Simpson
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-richard-dawkins-reads-jerry-coyne-helena-cronin-and-more 9/13
10/29/2018 What Richard Dawkins Reads: Jerry Coyne, Helena Cronin and More
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This is a paleontologist’s
account of evolution in South
America. Between the time
when the continent broke
away from Africa to when it
was joined to North America
by the isthmus of Panama,
South America was an island,
its fauna evolving in
isolation. The result, says
Dawkins, was “a kind of
experiment, a parallel world.”
Simpson focused his study on
mammals, and it’s easy to see
why. In addition to ancestors
of present-day armadillos
and anteaters, there were
huge saber-toothed
marsupials and guinea pigs
the size of hippopotamuses.
Then North American
monkeys began to island-hop
their way to the continent
and evolve into new
variations, and when Panama
joined the two landmasses
about three million years ago,
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-richard-dawkins-reads-jerry-coyne-helena-cronin-and-more 10/13
10/29/2018 What Richard Dawkins Reads: Jerry Coyne, Helena Cronin and More
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-richard-dawkins-reads-jerry-coyne-helena-cronin-and-more 12/13
10/29/2018 What Richard Dawkins Reads: Jerry Coyne, Helena Cronin and More
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https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-richard-dawkins-reads-jerry-coyne-helena-cronin-and-more 13/13