Otherlands: Journeys in Earth's Extinct Ecosystems offers a sweeping exploration of life across 550 million years. Paleobiologist Thomas Halliday breathes vitality into sixteen fossil sites, from Pliocene savannahs in Kenya to the earliest microbial oases of Ediacaran Australia. The book blends scientific rigor with vivid storytelling to illuminate Earth’s lost worlds.
Readers travel back in time to witness pythons pursuing australopithecines amid acacia trees, stand on the brink of an ancient Mediterranean just as waters spill in, and wander through lush Eocene forests in Antarctica. Each chapter reconstructs vanished habitats and charts how species migrated, adapted, and sometimes disappeared.
By revealing the patterns of ecosystem formation and collapse, Otherlands offers urgent perspective on today’s environmental stakes. Halliday’s narrative demonstrates the scale of deep time and reminds us how vulnerable even vast natural wonders can be when changes unfold over millennia.
- Detailed profiles of sixteen global fossil sites
- Insights into the evolution and extinction of species
- Connections between past climate shifts and modern challenges
- Engaging blend of paleobiology and narrative flair
