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Otherlands halliday review6/30/2023 ![]() ![]() In an epilogue, the author expands on the lessons deep-time can teach us. Along the way, readers cannot fail but notice unsettling similarities between doomed ecosystems of the distant past and current environmental crises. Fantastic flora and fauna abound, and Halliday stages unforgettable scenes such as the Miocene’s mile-high waterfall as the eastern Mediterranean fills, or under-sea tectonic plate movements as sensed by Jurassic-period ammonites. ![]() The book was conceived as a “naturalist’s travel book” and employs a style that has been aptly described as “lyrical”-which is remarkable given the book’s deeply rooted research (virtually every paragraph has a supporting footnote). Organized around 16 fossil sites, each chapter explores a general theme (e.g., Earth’s cycles, humans’ first appearance, etc.) maps charting the planet’s physical changes lead off each section, and drawings highlight some extinct species. Written by an award-winning young paleobiologist, the book takes readers on a voyage back through the. He works backward through the fossil record, beginning with the most recent ice age at end-Pleistocene to the emergence of multicellular creatures over 550 million years ago. If I had to explain the concept of Otherlands by Thomas Halliday to you in a single sentence, it would be that it’s a book that will take you as close to actual time travel as any words on a page could ever hope. of Birmingham) takes readers on a compelling voyage through ancient landscapes. Paleobiologist and evolutionary biologist Halliday (Univ. ![]()
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