The Tree of Life
Solving Science's Greatest Puzzle
by Max Telford
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Pub Date Nov 11 2025 | Archive Date Oct 31 2025
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Description
Taking readers inside one of science’s most ambitious projects, a leading evolutionary biologist offers a definitive portrait of life’s family tree.
Are humans really fish? Why are we the only animals with chins? How much of our DNA do we share with the trillions of bacteria in our bodies? For centuries, scientists have chased the secrets of how life on our planet arose, how it assumed its dazzling diversity of forms, and how we humans are related to everything else on earth. With increasingly sophisticated genetic methods now bringing us ever closer to answers, leading evolutionary biologist Max Telford takes us inside one of science’s greatest quests. In the intellectually thrilling The Tree of Life, Telford shows how reconstructing the web of relationships between all our planet’s species, from birds and butterflies to mushrooms and moose, allows us to unravel the epic history of life on our planet.
In Telford’s hands, the many-branched evolutionary trees that biologists assemble—from Charles Darwin’s first sketches to the vast computer-generated diagrams scientists are building today—become time machines that take us on a vivid journey through four billion years of life’s history. We meet long-lost ancestors, picturing them in the environment of a much younger earth, and discover where we first acquired our backbones and nipples and, conversely, where we lost our tails. We learn how insects are “actually” crustaceans, and how dogs and wolves are more closely related to whales than to the recently extinct Tasmanian wolves they so resemble. Far from a dry representation of the dead, the tree of life is a living, shifting thing that constantly alters our perspective on the past, present, and future of life on earth.
For any reader fascinated by evolution and natural history, The Tree of Life is an essential portal to the distant past and a window onto our collective origins.
About the Author:
Max Telford is an evolutionary biologist at University College London. He has received an EMBO Young Investigator award, the Linnean Society's Bicentenary Medal, and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit award. He lives in London.
Advance Praise
"[A] great, straightforward guide to the tree of life.…The Tree of Life is a millennia-spanning science-history book in the spirit of Thomas Halliday’s blockbusting Otherlands…[It] is a boon…[with] a brilliant finale, in which he traces the 4 billion years or so from LUCA to Homo sapiens—and beyond." -Peter Hoskin - New Scientist
"A breezy, scholarly, whimsical, rigorous, and companionable guide to…how the living world came to be the way it is. It’s a huge question that should resonate whenever humans reflect on—well, anything at all. Few would have the nerve or the know-how to attempt [it].…Telford, an evolutionary biologist at University College London, has both.…An extraordinary, adventurous book." -Charles Foster - Times Literary Supplement
"Evolutionary biologist Telford explores in this captivating debut history how the diversity of life on Earth came to be. Telford meticulously traces humans’ evolutionary path, from mere cells to fish then apes, Neanderthals, and, eventually, Homo sapiens … Readers will be wowed." -Publishers Weekly
"Lively…[and] packed with vivid examples of strange and wondrous creatures.…Max Telford is one of our generation’s most brilliant biologists and The Tree of Life is a wonderful guide to evolution’s marvels." -David George Haskell, biologist and Pulitzer-finalist author of Sounds Wild and Broken and The Forest Unseen
"An acrobatic exploration of the mightiest branches of the tree of life. Bursting with history and natural history, and dangling with tales of clever sleuthing.…An authoritative and personal guide to life’s evolution and our own origins." -Nick Lane, award-winning author of The Vital Question and Power, Sex, Suicide
"Beautiful…a breezy and very accessible way to get readers to think like scientists, and to see the tangled branches of our near and distant relatives all at once." -Thomas Halliday, author of Otherlands
"Rich with anecdote and infectious enthusiasm, The Tree of Life should delight anyone with even a passing interest in the miracle that is life on our planet." -Henry Gee, author of A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth
"Combining cutting-edge genetics, a dollop of history and terrifically bizarre creatures, this endlessly entertaining and exciting account is essential reading." -Matthew Cobb, author of Life’s Greatest Secret
"A fabulous tour-de-force on the evolution of the natural world; through cells, fish, humans, worms and more, Telford reveals the complexities of life with an extraordinary mix of humor, history, wit and erudition." -Seirian Sumner, author of Endless Forms
"If you’ve ever wondered how all of life is related, how we came to be, and how we know, then this brilliant and beautifully written book is for you. The greatest story ever told, presented with exemplary clarity and style." -Tim Blackburn, prize-winning author of The Jewel Box
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781324065425 |
| PRICE | $29.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 320 |
