(PDF) Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds eBook Online

Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds Online ePUB PDF by Thomas Halliday

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“Immersive . . . bracingly ambitious . . . rewinds the story of life on Earth—from the mammoth steppe of the last Ice Age to the dawn of multicellular creatures over 500 million years ago.”—The EconomistLONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE • “One of those rare books that’s both deeply informative and daringly imaginative.”—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White SkyONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Prospect (UK)The past is past, but it does leave clues, and Thomas Halliday has used cutting-edge science to decipher them more completely than ever before. In Otherlands, Halliday makes sixteen fossil sites burst to life on the page.This book is an exploration of the Earth as it used to exist, the changes that have occurred during its history, and the ways that life has found to adapt―or not. It takes us from the savannahs of Pliocene Kenya to watch a python chase a group of australopithecines into an acacia tree; to a cliff overlooking the salt pans of the empty basin of what will be the Mediterranean Sea just as water from the Miocene Atlantic Ocean spills in; into the tropical forests of Eocene Antarctica; and under the shallow pools of Ediacaran Australia, where we glimpse the first microbial life. Otherlands also offers us a vast perspective on the current state of the planet. The thought that something as vast as the Great Barrier Reef, for example, with all its vibrant diversity, might one day soon be gone sounds improbable. But the fossil record shows us that this sort of wholesale change is not only possible but has repeatedly happened throughout Earth history. Even as he operates on this broad canvas, Halliday brings us up close to the intricate relationships that defined these lost worlds. In novelistic prose that belies the breadth of his research, he illustrates how ecosystems are formed; how species die out and are replaced; and how species migrate, adapt, and collaborate. It is a breathtaking achievement: a surprisingly emotional narrative about the persistence of life, the fragility of seemingly permanent ecosystems, and the scope of deep time, all of which have something to tell us about our current crisis.

Details of the book :

Author : Thomas Halliday
★★★★☆ 4.4 from 5 stars (440 Reviews)
Langue : English
ISBN-10 : 0593132904
File size: 6 MB

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The author describes several possible scenarios, including the plant & animal life, which could have occured during the past ages of Earth. But he does this in reverse, going from most recent back into the deep past. It would've been nice if there had been more sketches of the wildlife he describes, the lack of which makes it harder to conceptualize the scenarios. Not the easiest book to get into. Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds Online ePUB PDF epub Outstanding paleontology book - it literally stands out from others by describing what actually took place. As interesting and essential to know as are topics such as geological time, tectonics, oxygen level in atmosphere, ocean chemistry, etc., these categories don't actually describe what took place. Otherlands does.Two minor criticisms: only one illustration each chapter. The drawings are exquisite. I wish there had been more. Also, thousands of references in the Notes, so many that finding desirable ones is like looking for the proverbial needle. A list of suggested reading would have helped.The sixteen chapters can each be read independently. Otherlands can be considered a collection of related short stories, as well as an unfolding novel. This is a book I'll return to more than once. And the writing is very good, a pleasure to read. PDF Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds kindle pdf An engrossing journey going backwards through millenniums to the very beginnings of our planet Earth. I only wish a glossary and more drawings were included. ePUB Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds link per il download This text is a lovely and lovingly written overview exploring the major eras of Deep Time from a holistic ecosystem wide perspective. It is readable, evocative, and informative as can be expected from a survey that crams the better part of 600 million years of history into 300 pages. The text is possibly the best such overview on the topic I've yet encountered, and I've read quite a few books on the subject.Unfortunately, for a book that is clearly aimed at introducing the wonders of paleontology to a newcomer, the book suffers from a crippling lack of artistic depictions. Art is limited to images of the arrangement of continents at the relevant geologic eras and a single line drawing of one organism per chapter. However, the chapters regularly mention upwards of a dozen organisms or whole groups of organisms with only a modicum of description as to what these animals (and occasionally plants) might have looked like. Myself, having read extensively on paleontology, I was familiar with the relevant names and understood immediately what the focus was, but I cannot help but think someone less versed in the topic would have simply encountered a blur of strange names and organisms they struggled to imagine.A version of this tech with comprehensive paleoart would be profound, but the current lack keeps it from true greatness. Download [PDF] Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds When I read the premise of this book, I was excited! As soon as "Otherlands" arrived I bumped it to the top of my reading list; having already enjoyed several other books that detailed the evolutionary history of the Earth, all written from varying perspectives, I was eager to read this new book that purported to imaginatively recreate various environments from throughout deep time.I still want to read that book. Unfortunately, "Otherlands" wasn't brave enough to fulfill its own potential. Which is not to say I found it horrible; it was simply far drier than a book of this nature has any business being.The main problem is that despite the cover blurbs and the professional reviews, this book really doesn't know what it wants to be. The previous "deep time" books I've ready were all pop-science books that began with fossils and geology, and then proceeded to explain what we know and how we know it. These books all have a theme to prove (i.e. the relationship between biology and geology, the evolution of certain body plans, chronicling the major mass extinctions, etc.) and then busily goes about illuminating the reader on those themes. And in most cases, it's not the author's first book."Otherlands" thinks it is not a book about fossils. But it is not an evocative re-imagining of lost landscapes, either. It exists, unsatisfactorily, somewhere in between standard nature writing and science writing, too timid to go full-body in either direction.The book is divided into 16 main chapters, each focused on one geologic age and one specific location from that age, chosen because of a particularly complete fossil record. The chapters nominally have a theme as well, although no effort is made to introduce that theme at the outset, and much thematic wandering does occur. From a science writing perspective, there is no discussion whatsoever about why each fossil site was chosen -- the assumption seems to be the reader already knows that information -- and so there is no discussion on the research that has been conducted. From a nature writing perspective, there is little evidence of a sense of wonder; the least imaginative nature writers think that providing lists of the species they observed at a particular location somehow captures their essence, and that is what happens a little too often in "Otherlands."Better versions of this book could easily go either way. A more science-oriented book might focus on these same eras and same locations, but it would necessarily include far more illustrations as it elaborates on how certain fossil collections record fascinating moments in deep time.On the other hand, the book that was promised to me on the dust jacket would be bolder in its decision to take a few leaps beyond the dusty fossils to vividly recreate these lost versions of the Earth. Such a book would have to employ a writing style that is more lyrical than a typical science-oriented book, as I can think of no other way to achieve that "you are there" sense of wonder and awe.If somebody every writes that book, I will happily snap it up.