Highbrow Magazine - early mankind https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/early-mankind en In ‘Otherlands,’ a Look at Life on Earth Before the Mass Extinction Event https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/21620-otherlands-look-life-earth-mass-extinction-event <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/books-fiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Books &amp; Fiction</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 09/06/2022 - 16:35</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1earth_needpix.jpg?itok=3RMQApBb"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1earth_needpix.jpg?itok=3RMQApBb" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth’s Extinct Worlds</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>By Thomas Halliday</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Random House </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>385 pages</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">What was life on Earth like 550 million years ago? Until recently, it would have been nearly impossible to speculate with any accuracy on anything so distant in the past. These days, with advances in paleontology and evolutionary biology, we have a far better-informed answer to this question. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In his new book, <em>Otherlands: A Journey through Earth’s Extinct Worlds</em>, paleontologist Thomas Halliday offers a close-up, in-depth survey of life on our planet, long before mankind came along and started bending natural laws to its will.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Through a close study of fossil records, Halliday describes what day-to-day existence must have been like for plants and animals, beginning with the Pleistocene ice age, then moving backwards in time through different geologic epochs. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/hallidaybook.jpg" style="height:656px; width:434px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">It's a colorful survey of life before the mass extinction event, based on extensive studies and the use of ever-improving technology. Halliday is careful to note that the contents of his book are “grounded in fact, either directly observable from the fossil record, strongly inferred, or, where our knowledge is incomplete, plausible based on what we can say for sure.” </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>Otherlands </em>is comprised of 16 chapters, each centered on a specific locale (Africa, Alaska, Chile, Antarctica, and elsewhere) and geologic era (Pleistocene, Cenozoic, Mesozoic, etc.). The result is a deep dive into life on Earth millions of years ago, which in turn provides a deeper understanding not only of long-ago planetary conditions, but of the nature of time itself: </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“If all 4.5 billion years of Earth’s history were to be condensed into a single day and played out, more than three million years of footage would go by every minute. We would see ecosystems rapidly rise and fall as the species that constitute their living parts appear and become extinct. We would see continents drift, climatic conditions change in a blink, and sudden, dramatic events overturn long-lived communities with devastating consequences. The mass extinction event that extinguished pterosaurs, plesiosaurs and all non-bird dinosaurs would occur 21 minutes before the end. Written human history would begin in the last tenth of a second.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">There’s no question that Halliday, a professor at the University of Birmingham and a scientific associate of the Natural History Museum in London, is a gifted writer and someone who knows what he’s talking about. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2halliday_mauricio_anton_-_wikimedia.jpg" style="height:320px; width:655px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">At times, however, the author’s approach, with its full-scale descriptions of primeval flora, fauna, and environmental conditions, is thorough almost to the point of exhaustion. This approach—not <em>less is more, </em>but <em>more is more</em>—runs the perilous risk of overwhelming readers with details sometimes difficult to visualize and absorb:</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“Proboscideans are certainly diverse in Kanapoi. There is not just <em>Loxodonta adaurora, </em>closely related to and barely distinguishable from the African elephant, but also <em>Elephas ekorensis</em>, a cousin of Indian elephants and mammoths. Among the trees strut stately, short-legged <em>Anancus </em>with their long, straight, forklift-truck tusks that almost reach the ground, and unlikely <em>Deinotherium</em>, whose short tusks curve backwards and are used to scrape bark from trees.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>Otherlands </em>is a densely composed and ambitious piece of science writing. It’s also a rich, imaginative portrait of Earth’s earliest days, as expertly speculative about prehistoric times as one can imagine being within the confines of a single book.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Lee Polevoi</em> <em>is </em>Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief book critic, and the author of two novels, </em>The Moon in Deep Winter, <em>and </em>The Confessions of Gabriel Ash, <em>forthcoming in 2023.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--</em><a href="https://www.needpix.com/photo/277046/earth-globe-world-eastern-hemisphere-space-sphere-blue-clouds-land" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Needpix</em></a><em> (Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Mauricio Anton (</em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ice_age_fauna_of_northern_Spain_-_Mauricio_Ant%C3%B3n.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia.org</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Random House</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/otherlands" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">otherlands</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/thomas-halliday" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">thomas halliday</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new books</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/earth-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the earth</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/science-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">science books</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pleistocene-era" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pleistocene era</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/extinct" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">extinct</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/geologic-era" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">geologic era</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mesozoic" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mesozoic</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/our-planet" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">our planet</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/early-mankind" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">early mankind</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lee Polevoi</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 06 Sep 2022 20:35:10 +0000 tara 11308 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/21620-otherlands-look-life-earth-mass-extinction-event#comments