Otherlands: A World in the Making

This is a wonderful book!!

I quote from page xii: "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 second." Sorry? Where did this number come from? 4.5 billion divided by 86,400 is 52,083. That's the number of years that would go by every second. It continues: "The mass extinction event that extinguished pterosaurs, plesiosaurs and all non-bird dinosaurs would occur 21 seconds before the end." Well, it would occur 65 million divided by 52,083 seconds before the end, which is 1,248 seconds or almost 21 minutes. And to finish: "Written human history would begin in the last two thousandths of a second." If we take it to begin 5,000 years ago that would make roughly one tenth of a second. The numbers are off by approximately a factor of 60 which reveals what kind of error happened. Instead of using 86,400 (the number of seconds in a day), 1,440 was used (the number of minutes). The first two statements are actually correct if "second" is substituted with "minute". Worth fixing in the next edition though or we risk seeing these numbers repeated everywhere :D

I found this book an interesting way to describe the changing way of life on our planet. Higly recomended by me.

A nice read and a wonderful tour of paleontology, geologic period by geologic period, by way of specific localities chosen for their exceptional fossil records. The fascinating and unappreciated adaptations for overcoming various problems creatures faced is a tour all by itself. I recommend the book for all readers who are curious about past ages.

’Otherlands’ by Thomas Halliday is the story of our planet. Halliday is a paleobiologist who explains the history of our world in a way that has opened my eyes. He goes back in time, showing how Earth has changed and developed over millions of years. Using ecosystems and creatures we may or may not be familiar with, he makes us realise that we are but a tiny part of it all. Halliday writes in a very accessible style. It is not just dry facts, but imaginative and truly fascinating. I learned so much and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was given this Arc for review.

This book covers the natural world from the beginning to the present in a non emotional manner. A totally fascinating read.

There is nothing that irritates me more than seeing an amazing book being published under a mediocre format and only that format. Utterly disappointing. It’s like, you poor people cannot afford a 70€ book, so keep reading until you get blind #replacepinguim

I bought this on a whim and it became one of those books i could not put down it changed my outlook on life completely i urge anyone to read it

- In this remarkable book, the author takes us on a journey through deep time, taking us in reverse order through time to a describe how animals, fauna and landscapes have changed due to ever changing conditions such as changes in climate, the planet and time. These worlds are almost alien in description and completely different to this current world. - it's a remarkable fact that everything we know about the past and the lives that lives that came before us has mainly came from the death of creatures and the fossils they have left behind. This book looks over successive periods of time as a snapshot working in reverse order to tell us who we were, where we came from. In the snapshot pictures poetic descriptions and fascinating and you could learn a lot about who we were and where we came from over a large period of time. - One of the approaches that I use to describe deep time is by measuring from my nose to an outstretched hand to the side and asking people what amount of my hand would need to be removed to wipe out the entire history of humans on this planet. All I need to do is put a nail fail across my finger and the crumbs form my nail would represent the time man has been on this planet. This book tells of all the events that have occurred before this time (though the first two parts do include humans or descendants of humans). - “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 second. We would see ecosystems rapidly rise and fall of the species that constitute their living parts appearing become extinct. We would see continents drift, climatic conditions change in a blink, and sudden dramatic events overturned long lived communities with devastating consequences. The mass extinction event that extinguished all the non- bird dinosaurs would occur 21 seconds before the end. Written human history would begin in the last thousandth of a second". - “This book is an exploration of the earth that it used to exist, the changes that have occurred during its history and the ways that life has found to adapt stop each chapter is guided by the fossil record, visiting the plants and animals that immersed themselves in the landscape. And through this we can learn about our own world from these extinct ecosystems.” - In ‘Otherworlds’ we go through the history of life you in reverse order, looking at different snapshot of the time, by starting in the Pleistocene age and moving through Palaeocene, Cretaceous, Jurassic, Triassic, Permian, Carboniferous, Devonian, Silurian, Ordovician, Cambrian ages amongst others. We finally come to a world where the land is completely different to our own, days are only 22 hours long and tsunamis are frequent due to the closeness of the moon which is gradually moving away from Earth. - A wonderfully explored final coda that looks at what we need to do to ensure our own survival, a message of hope regarding what is happening in our world, how we can change the future and if we don’t do anything, it will have consequences, just like anyone in the in past period where lives have undergone mass extinction. We now live in a world where 60% of all the birds that live are chickens and birds are incredible because they are the only true survivors of the dinosaur error and are related to dinosaurs. - An excellent and fascinating read that can take you back to ‘other worlds’ – and Halliday paints and describes these different worlds on planet Earth beautifully.

Qué gozada sentir cuánto aprendes cuando pillas un buen libro de divulgación científica. Para mi es una sensación inigualable.