otherlands journeys in earth's extinct ecosystems thomas halliday

The real wonder is that none are imaginary: They comport with our best current scientific knowledge. Halliday’s survey stars each of his selected locales, complete with their shifting geology, flourishing botany, unique weather patterns, and, not least, some of the strangest and most wonderful animals imaginable. Highbrow Magazine Halliday vividly recreates scenes from ecosystems that flourished from the relatively recent past. rewinds the story of life on Earth-from the mammoth. Thomas Halliday, Otherlands: Journeys in Earths Extinct Ecosystems 4 likes Like Traces of historical associations can long outlast actual contact. A rich, imaginative portrait of Earth’s earliest days. There are plenty of fascinating life-forms, but “Otherlands” isn’t Jurassic Park, filled with ridiculously out-of-place dinosaur villains. Otherlands: Journeys in Earths Extinct Ecosystems by Thomas Halliday available in Hardcover on, also read synopsis and reviews. “This book,” he explains, “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.” He constructs it around 16 geological sites from Alaska to Siberia to Australia, focused on the place of each in an evolving, changing world rather than, as one might expect, any especially charismatic occupants.

Different, yes, but oddly familiar thanks to this debut book by Thomas Halliday, a vertebrate paleontologist and honorary fellow at the University of Birmingham. But readers of “Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth’s Extinct Worlds” will find it substantially less foreign than they might expect, even though the past in question is long ago indeed.

Otherlands journeys in earth's extinct ecosystems thomas halliday