Author | Thomas Halliday |
---|---|
Language | English |
Subject | Palaeontology, evolutionary biology, geology, topography |
Genres | Nonfiction |
Publisher | Allen Lane, London; Random House, New York; Penguin Canada, Toronto |
Publication date | February 1, 2022 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Pages | 416 |
ISBN | 9780593132883 |
Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds is a nonfiction book about palaeontology written by Thomas Halliday, a British palaeontologist. He goes as far back in time as approximately 555 million years ago. The book was simultaneously published in English by Allen Lane (UK and Commonwealth), Random House (USA and Philippines), and Penguin Canada (Canada) in February 2022.
Halliday uncovers for the lay public the vast changes in fauna, flora, topography, and climate over the past 555 million years. He observes cyclical changes, including cycles of ice ages and climate warming, and periods of mass extinction followed by periods of mass flourishing. However at each renewal, life takes on completely different forms that are adapted to the new environmental conditions. Thus, life goes on but species do not. Looking forward on a paleontology time scale, humankind will inevitably go extinct.
Halliday starts the first chapter by going back in time about 20,000 years ago. And, through the next 15 chapters he goes further back in time to approximately 555 million years ago. Each chapter covers a specific geological time period and part of the world. Such time and place most often represent key turning points in the paleontological history of life on Earth.
The table below provides more detailed information about the specific locations and periods covered.
Halliday indicates that humankind bears a huge responsibility in the trajectory of our contemporary climate change. Today's atmosphere has a similar composition as during the Oligocene (an epoch ranging from 34 million to 23 million years ago during the Palaeogene period shown within the table above). However, by the end of this century, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) projects that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere could reach levels of CO2 similar to the Eocene (the preceding epoch to the Oligocene ranging from 56 million to 34 million years ago). Temperature ranges during the Eocene were a lot higher than contemporary ones. And, the only way to reduce this prospective increase in temperature is by decreasing CO2 emissions and flatten the upward trajectory of atmospheric CO2 concentration.
By studying the distant past, Halliday can envision prospective climate change scenarios. Depending on how much CO2is emitted, the Earth could very well be heading towards Eocene-temperature levels far faster than any underlying long term paleontology-cycle would suggest.
Halliday is a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist. He has held research positions at University College London and the University of Birmingham, and has been part of paleontology field crews in Argentina and India. He holds a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Birmingham, and is a scientific associate of the Natural History Museum. His research combines theoretical and real data to investigate long-term patterns in the fossil record, particularly in mammals. He was the winner of the Linnean Society's John C. Marsden Medal in 2016 [1] and the Hugh Miller Writing Competition in 2018. [2]
"Otherlands" is Halliday's first book.
Halliday has published numerous scientific papers often related to the explanatory narrative within "Otherlands." The book itself includes 45 pages of scientific references (between 20 and 30 references per chapter).
This book was well received with positive reviews from nonfiction book critics.
"An extraordinary history of our almost-alien Earth" [3]
"A stirring, eye-opening journey into deep time, from the Ice Age to the first appearance of microbial life 550 million years ago, by a brilliant young paleobiologist." [4]
"A bracing pleasure for Earth-science buffs and readers interested in diving into deep history." [5]
"Our planet has been many different worlds over its 4.5-billion-year history. Imagining what they were like is hard—with our limited lifespan, deep time eludes us by its very nature. Otherlands, the debut of Scottish palaeontologist Thomas Halliday, presents you with a series of past worlds. Though this is a non-fiction book thoroughly grounded in fact, it is the quality of the narrative that stands out. Beyond imaginative metaphors to describe extinct lifeforms, some of his reflections on deep time, taxonomy, and evolution are simply spine-tingling." [6]
"In this remarkable book, the award-winning scientist Thomas Halliday takes us on a tour of the landscapes, flora and fauna of the distant past." [7]
"A fascinating journey through Earth's history." [8]
"An extraordinary history of our almost-alien Earth." [9]
"As a paleontologist, Halliday is at home with an amazing range of technical terms, casually rattling off thorny ones like Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi or palaeoscolecids. Fortunately, you can safely skim over these tongue twisters and focus on the big picture – 16 chapters reaching back from a mere 20,000 years in the past, when humans moved into the Americas, to the Ediacaran Period, 550 million years ago. Each chapter presents its own point in time in memorable fashion, homing in on everyday experiences to make that particular “otherland” come alive." [10]
The Cenozoic is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66 million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, birds, conifers, and angiosperms. It is the latest of three geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon, preceded by the Mesozoic and Paleozoic. The Cenozoic started with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, when many species, including the non-avian dinosaurs, became extinct in an event attributed by most experts to the impact of a large asteroid or other celestial body, the Chicxulub impactor.
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and greenhouse periods during which there are no glaciers on the planet. Earth is currently in the ice age called Quaternary glaciation. Individual pulses of cold climate within an ice age are termed glacial periods, and intermittent warm periods within an ice age are called interglacials or interstadials.
The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words μείων and καινός and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene followed the Oligocene and preceded the Pliocene.
The Neogene is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period 23.03 million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period 2.58 million years ago. The Neogene is sub-divided into two epochs, the earlier Miocene and the later Pliocene. Some geologists assert that the Neogene cannot be clearly delineated from the modern geological period, the Quaternary. The term "Neogene" was coined in 1853 by the Austrian palaeontologist Moritz Hörnes (1815–1868). The earlier term Tertiary Period was used to define the span of time now covered by Paleogene and Neogene and, despite no longer being recognized as a formal stratigraphic term, "Tertiary" still sometimes remains in informal use.
The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the epoch are slightly uncertain. The name Oligocene was coined in 1854 by the German paleontologist Heinrich Ernst Beyrich from his studies of marine beds in Belgium and Germany. The name comes from Ancient Greek ὀλίγος (olígos) 'few' and καινός (kainós) 'new', and refers to the sparsity of extant forms of molluscs. The Oligocene is preceded by the Eocene Epoch and is followed by the Miocene Epoch. The Oligocene is the third and final epoch of the Paleogene Period.
Paleontology, also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to the start of the Holocene epoch. It includes the study of fossils to classify organisms and study their interactions with each other and their environments. Paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuvier's work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term has been used since 1822 formed from Greek παλαιός, ὄν, and λόγος.
The Paleogene Period is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period 66 Ma to the beginning of the Neogene Period 23.03 Ma. It is the first period of the Cenozoic Era and is divided into the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene epochs. The earlier term Tertiary Period was used to define the time now covered by the Paleogene Period and subsequent Neogene Period; despite no longer being recognized as a formal stratigraphic term, "Tertiary" still sometimes remains in informal use. Paleogene is often abbreviated "Pg", although the United States Geological Survey uses the abbreviation "Pe" for the Paleogene on the Survey's geologic maps.
The Phanerozoic is the current and the latest of the four geologic eons in the Earth's geologic time scale, covering the time period from 538.8 million years ago to the present. It is the eon during which abundant animal and plant life has proliferated, diversified and colonized various niches on the Earth's surface, beginning with the Cambrian period when animals first developed hard shells that can be clearly preserved in the fossil record. The time before the Phanerozoic, collectively called the Precambrian, is now divided into the Hadean, Archaean and Proterozoic eons.
Paleoclimatology is the scientific study of climates predating the invention of meteorological instruments, when no direct measurement data were available. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of Earth's history, the reconstruction of ancient climate is important to understand natural variation and the evolution of the current climate.
Uintatherium is an extinct genus of herbivorous dinoceratan mammal that lived during the Eocene epoch. Two species are currently recognized: U. anceps from the United States during the Early to Middle Eocene and U. insperatus of Middle to Late Eocene China.
South American native ungulates, commonly abbreviated as SANUs, are extinct ungulate-like mammals of controversial affinities that were indigenous to South America from the Paleocene until the end of the Late Pleistocene. They represented a dominant element of South America's Cenozoic terrestrial mammal fauna prior to the arrival of living unguate groups in South America during the Pliocene and Pleistocene as part of the Great American Interchange. They comprise five major groups conventionally ranked as orders—Astrapotheria, Litopterna, Notoungulata, Pyrotheria, and Xenungulata—as well as the primitive "condylarth" groups Didolodontidae and Kollpaniinae. It has been proposed that some or all of the members of this group form a clade, named Meridiungulata, though the relationships of South American ungulates remain largely unresolved. The two largest groups of South American ungulates, the notoungulates and the litopterns, were the only groups to persist beyond the mid Miocene. Only a few of the largest species of notoungulates and litopterns survived until the end-Pleistocene extinction event around 12,000 years ago where they became extinct with most other large mammals in the Americas, shortly after the first arrival of humans into the region.
Paleobiology is an interdisciplinary field that combines the methods and findings found in both the earth sciences and the life sciences. Paleobiology is not to be confused with geobiology, which focuses more on the interactions between the biosphere and the physical Earth.
In Earth's atmosphere, carbon dioxide is a trace gas that plays an integral part in the greenhouse effect, carbon cycle, photosynthesis and oceanic carbon cycle. It is one of three main greenhouse gases in the atmosphere of Earth. Water vapor is the primary greenhouse gas, as of 2010, contributing 50% of the greenhouse effect, followed by carbon dioxide at 20%. The current global average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 421 ppm (0.04%) as of May 2022. This is an increase of 50% since the start of the Industrial Revolution, up from 280 ppm during the 10,000 years prior to the mid-18th century. The increase is due to human activity.
Icadyptes is an extinct genus of giant penguins from the Late Eocene tropics of South America.
Throughout Earth's climate history (Paleoclimate) its climate has fluctuated between two primary states: greenhouse and icehouse Earth. Both climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with the much smaller glacial and interglacial periods, which occur as alternating phases within an icehouse period and tend to last less than 1 million years. There are five known icehouse periods in Earth's climate history, namely the Huronian, Cryogenian, Andean-Saharan, Late Paleozoic and Late Cenozoic glaciations.
Georgiacetus is an extinct genus of ancient whale known from the Eocene period of the United States. Fossils are known from Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi and protocetid fossils from the right time frame, but not yet confirmed as Georgiacetus, have been found in Texas and South Carolina.
Donald Ross Prothero is an American geologist, paleontologist, and author who specializes in mammalian paleontology and magnetostratigraphy, a technique to date rock layers of the Cenozoic era and its use to date the climate changes which occurred 30–40 million years ago. He is the author or editor of more than 30 books and over 300 scientific papers, including at least 5 geology textbooks.
Isabel Patricia Montañez is a paleoclimatologist specializing in geochemical records of ancient climate change. She is a distinguished professor and a Chancellor's Leadership Professor in the department of earth and planetary sciences at University of California, Davis. As of 2021, Montañez is the director of the UC Davis Institute of the Environment.
The Late Cenozoic Ice Age, or Antarctic Glaciation, began 34 million years ago at the Eocene-Oligocene Boundary and is ongoing. It is Earth's current ice age or icehouse period. Its beginning is marked by the formation of the Antarctic ice sheets.
Thomas John Dixon Halliday is a British palaeobiologist and author.