| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
xx, 384 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm |
|
text txt rdacontent |
|
unmediated n rdamedia |
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volume nc rdacarrier |
|
Paleontologists Evolutionary biologists lcdgt |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-348) and index. |
| Contents |
Thaw : Northern Plain, Alaska, USA -- Pleistocene -- Origins : Kanapoi, Kenya -- Pliocene -- Deluge : Gargono, Italy -- Miocene -- Homeland : Tinguiririca, Chile -- Oligocene -- Cycles : Seymour Island, Antarctica -- Eocene -- Rebirth : Hell Creek, Montana, USA -- Paleocene -- Signals : Yixian, Liaoning, China -- Cretaceous -- Foundation : Swabia, Germany -- Jurassic -- Contingency : Madygen, Kyrgyzstan -- Triassic -- Seasons : Moradi, Niger -- Permian -- Fuel : Mazon Creek, Illinois, USA -- Carboniferous -- Collaboration : Rhynie, Scotland, UK -- Devonian -- Depths : Yaman-Kasy, Russia -- Silurian -- Transformation : Soom, South Africa -- Ordovician -- Consumers : Chengjiang, Yunnan, China -- Cambrian -- Emergence : Ediacara Hills, Australia -- Ediacaran -- Epilogue: a town called hope. |
| Summary |
Mining the most recent paleontological advances, a paleobiologist recreates sixteen extinct worlds, rendered with a novelist's eye for detail and drama, showing up close the intricate relationships of these ancient worlds. |
|
The past is past, but it does leave clues, and Thomas Halliday, a brilliant young paleobiologist, has used cutting-edge science to decipher them more completely than ever before. In Otherlands, Halliday makes sixteen fossil sites, reaching back 550 million years, 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 Mediterranean basin 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 offers us an unusually broad perspective on our 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 improbably. But the fossil record shows us that this sort of wholesale change not only is possible but has repeatedly happened throughout Earth's history. Even as he operates on the this massive canvas, Halliday brings us up close to the intricate relationships that define his lost worlds. In novelistic prose, he illustrates how ecosystems are formed, how species die out and are replaced, and how they migrate, adapt, and collaborate. Otherlands is a breathtaking achievement: a surprisingly emotional narrative about the persistence of life,m the gragility of seemingly permanent ecosystems, and the scope of deep time, all of which have something to tell us about our current crisis. -- From dust jacket. |
| Subject |
Paleontology -- Popular works.
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Fossils -- Popular works.
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Paleoecology -- Popular works.
|
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Fossils. (OCoLC)fst00933164
|
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Paleoecology. (OCoLC)fst01051384
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Paleontology. (OCoLC)fst01051513
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| Genre/Form |
Popular works. (OCoLC)fst01423846
|
|
Informational works.
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Creative nonfiction.
|
| Added Title |
Other lands |
| ISBN |
9780593132883 (hardcover) |
|
0593132882 |
|
9780593132890 (Ebook) |
| Standard No. |
9780593132883 |
|
