Försvunna världar: en resa till jordens urtid by Thomas HallidayMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
In “Otherlands”, paleobiologist Thomas Halliday takes us on a fascinating journey through Earth’s deep past, bringing extinct species and landscapes vividly to life. With a mix of scientific rigor and literary elegance, he explores mass extinctions, evolutionary leaps, and dramatic climate shifts.
One of the book’s standout moments is the description of the Mediterranean, once a dried-out abyss, being filled by the Atlantic’s waters in what became the world’s largest waterfall. Equally compelling is the story of how South America’s monkeys trace their origins to a small group that drifted across the ocean from Africa. Unfortunately, Halliday describes natural history backwards, from (close to) our time to back to an unfathomably distant prehistory. This adds to the reader's difficulties to understand how natural history is unfolding
Halliday’s poetic and educational prose blends science with beauty, making “Otherlands” both an informative and evocative read. It is so good that it almost manages to make up for the book’s scant illustrations. It is a feat to describe these alien worlds in words, but illustrations up to par would have made quite a difference in readability and understanding. Sometimes the author loses the reader because of the sheer scale of the topic.
The book describes unimaginable time spans, with long complex events that take place over hundreds of thousands of years. Life is more resilient and adaptable than we often give it credit for. The whole perspective of the book raises a lot of question marks about our times. Is it that special? Are we seeing the planet's developments with too short time frames?
It’s a thought-provoking reminder of Earth’s ever-changing nature and the lost worlds that shaped our present. A good first try.
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