9780141999807

English language

Published by Penguin Books Ltd.

4 stars (10 reviews)

A dazzlingly original, lyrical and epic encounter with the Earth as it used to be What would it be like to visit the ancient landscapes of the past? To experience the Jurassic or Cambrian worlds, to wander among these other lands, as creatures extinct for millions of years roam? In this mesmerizing debut, the award-winning palaeontologist Thomas Halliday gives us a breath-taking up close encounter with worlds that are normally unimaginably distant. Journeying backwards in time from the most recent Ice Age to the dawn of complex life itself, and across all seven continents, Halliday immerses us in a series of extinct ecosystems, each one rendered with a novelist's eye for detail and drama. Yet every description - whether the colour of a beetle's shell, the rhythm of pterosaurs in flight or the lingering smell of sulphur in the air - is grounded in fact. We visit the birthplace of …

7 editions

Clever telling of a science story

4 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It is packed with science but presents in a well-organized and interesting way. Zooming through eras and eons it does not try to be comprehensive in its telling but focuses on a number of narrative threads. The approach is unique and refreshing and in the end an enjoyable ride.

More than dinos

4 stars

Despite the lack of visual aids in the audiobook rendition, this book still stirred the pot of nascent geological interest in me. The eras get jumbled together but the scenes painted from the most astute inferences of the fossil record have stuck. Recommended to all those who live in this world inhabited by the ghosts of those pre-anthropological creatures both mighty and minute

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Subjects

  • Paleontology
  • Popular works
  • Extinction (Biology)
  • Biotic communities
  • Fossils
  • Life (Biology)
  • Evolution (Biology)
  • Natural history
  • Paleobiology
  • Biological Extinction
  • Natural History
  • Paléontologie
  • Ouvrages de vulgarisation
  • Extinction (Biologie)
  • Fossiles
  • Vie (Biologie)
  • Sciences naturelles
  • Paléobiologie
  • Natural sciences

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