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Here Be Dragons: How the Study of Animal and Plant Distributions Revolutionized Our Views of Life and Earth
Why do we find polar bears only in the Arctic and penguins only in the Antarctic? Why are marsupials found only in Australia and South America? In a book that Science News called "fascinating and revelatory," Dennis McCarthy tells a story that encompasses two great, insightful theories that
together explain the strange patterns of life across the world--evolution and plate tectonics. We find animals and plants where we do because, over time, the continents have moved, separating and uniting in a long, slow dance; because sea levels have risen, cutting off one bit of land from another;
because new and barren volcanic islands have risen up from the sea; and because animals and plants vary greatly in their ability to travel, and separation causes the formation of new species. This is the story of how life has responded to, and has in turn altered, the ever-changing Earth. And it
includes many fascinating tales--of pygmy mammoths and elephant birds and of radical ideas by bold young scientists.
together explain the strange patterns of life across the world--evolution and plate tectonics. We find animals and plants where we do because, over time, the continents have moved, separating and uniting in a long, slow dance; because sea levels have risen, cutting off one bit of land from another;
because new and barren volcanic islands have risen up from the sea; and because animals and plants vary greatly in their ability to travel, and separation causes the formation of new species. This is the story of how life has responded to, and has in turn altered, the ever-changing Earth. And it
includes many fascinating tales--of pygmy mammoths and elephant birds and of radical ideas by bold young scientists.
240 pages, Paperback
First published October 22, 2009
24 people are currently reading
458 people want to read
About the author
Dennis McCarthy
31 books5 followersDennis McCarthy has published numerous works in the fields of Shakespeare studies, biogeography, and geophysics.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
February 7, 2015
If you want to read a book about biodiversity, read David Quammen's "Song of the Dodo." That is an excellent book that is more entertaining, more informative, more scientific, better wwritten, core comprehensive. It is everything you wanted to know about biodiversity written in terms a layman can understand.
This book, on the other hand, is a quick gloss over of a very interesting topic. It jumps around a lot. It does not cover anything in depth. It does not explain how biodiversity is studied. It is not particularly well written, although not terrible. And it does not get its facts right. I am sure the author is not a biologist and has only a superficial knowledge of this topic. Here are some examples.
He refers to rainforest as "jumgles," using the terms as interchangeable. This is not true in a scientific sense. Rainforests are original, diverse forests with a clear understory. If you've ever walked in a rainforest, you are amazed at how little growth there is on the ground. There are a ton of roots to negotiate through, but very little actual growth. Jungles on the other hand are disturbed, second growth forests that are rife with undergrowth, young trees and lacking in biodiversity.
At one point he states that Komodo dragons are the largest of all living reptiles. This is eimply not true. Komodo dragons are the largest living LIZARDS. There are several crocodilians that are much, much larger, and even some sea turtles weigh more. The largest Komodo dragons are about 10' long and weigh around 150 lbs. The largest crocodile gets to about 23' and weighs around 2,000 lbs. That's quite amistake to make. Anyone familiar with reptiles at all would not make this error.
The author also refers to Galapagos marine iguanas as "These most seaworthy of all reptiles." Actually, again, they are the most seaworthy of all LIZARDS. Marine iguanas spend most of their time on land, only going into the water to feed. Sea turtles spend nearly their entire life in the sea. Females come out to lay their eggs but in many species males never emerge once they enter the sea as hatchlings. Sea snakes are even more marine in that they even give birth in the water.
A wuote: For many species, islands greatly reduce two of the key pruning agents of evolution--predators and severe competition for food--so island relatives help depict what mainland birds would become like if these same cushy conditions existed on continents. I agree that islands generally reduce the number of species of predators, but there is still intensive competition for food. The difference is that this competition may take place withing a single species or group of species. For example, Darwin's finches are an example of resource partitioning due to competition for food. Island environments are not "cushy." They are sometimes brutal due to the limited resources available.
Anyway, you get the point. Due to the fact that the author is not really familiar with biology, he makes several fundamental mistakes. These should easily have been caught by an editor with a biological background and, in any case, can be checked by simply looking them up, at least some of them, on Wikipedia.
Nevertheless, it is a book on an interesting topic and the majority of it is more or less correct. Still, if ou are interested in this topic at all, I strongly suggest you read David Quammen's book.
This book, on the other hand, is a quick gloss over of a very interesting topic. It jumps around a lot. It does not cover anything in depth. It does not explain how biodiversity is studied. It is not particularly well written, although not terrible. And it does not get its facts right. I am sure the author is not a biologist and has only a superficial knowledge of this topic. Here are some examples.
He refers to rainforest as "jumgles," using the terms as interchangeable. This is not true in a scientific sense. Rainforests are original, diverse forests with a clear understory. If you've ever walked in a rainforest, you are amazed at how little growth there is on the ground. There are a ton of roots to negotiate through, but very little actual growth. Jungles on the other hand are disturbed, second growth forests that are rife with undergrowth, young trees and lacking in biodiversity.
At one point he states that Komodo dragons are the largest of all living reptiles. This is eimply not true. Komodo dragons are the largest living LIZARDS. There are several crocodilians that are much, much larger, and even some sea turtles weigh more. The largest Komodo dragons are about 10' long and weigh around 150 lbs. The largest crocodile gets to about 23' and weighs around 2,000 lbs. That's quite amistake to make. Anyone familiar with reptiles at all would not make this error.
The author also refers to Galapagos marine iguanas as "These most seaworthy of all reptiles." Actually, again, they are the most seaworthy of all LIZARDS. Marine iguanas spend most of their time on land, only going into the water to feed. Sea turtles spend nearly their entire life in the sea. Females come out to lay their eggs but in many species males never emerge once they enter the sea as hatchlings. Sea snakes are even more marine in that they even give birth in the water.
A wuote: For many species, islands greatly reduce two of the key pruning agents of evolution--predators and severe competition for food--so island relatives help depict what mainland birds would become like if these same cushy conditions existed on continents. I agree that islands generally reduce the number of species of predators, but there is still intensive competition for food. The difference is that this competition may take place withing a single species or group of species. For example, Darwin's finches are an example of resource partitioning due to competition for food. Island environments are not "cushy." They are sometimes brutal due to the limited resources available.
Anyway, you get the point. Due to the fact that the author is not really familiar with biology, he makes several fundamental mistakes. These should easily have been caught by an editor with a biological background and, in any case, can be checked by simply looking them up, at least some of them, on Wikipedia.
Nevertheless, it is a book on an interesting topic and the majority of it is more or less correct. Still, if ou are interested in this topic at all, I strongly suggest you read David Quammen's book.
May 6, 2010
Before reading this book, I had no idea of what intrepid Swashbucklers geographers are. Now, I can see that understanding geography is essential in many ways to understanding evolution and the formation of new species. "Here Be Dragons" covers some of the same territory as Dawkins' "The Greatest Show on Earth," but from the focused perspective of the, often tragic, clash between bio-organisms and the geographical changes that lead to natural selection and new species. The author gives extremely interesting descriptions and analyses of the evolutionary changes in the flora and fauna as the once great unified landmass of Gondwanaland broke up due to ocean fault lines. The progressive movement of Antarctica from the balmy middle earth to the frozen desert at the south pole is described as a progressive tragedy for the multiple biological species - none of which survived - except for the (somewhat anthropomorphic) "heroic" penguins who managed to evolve to meet the changed conditions. The same tragic scenario is described as the formerly protected species of South America are rapidly wiped out by North American carnivorous predators when the Panama land bridge emerged from the sea to connect the two continents. Why haven't modern humans formed new human species? The author gives and interesting description of our astonishing mobility using the Pacific Islanders as just one example. As opposed to most other biological organisms, we humans can get just about anywhere on earth we take a hankering to go. And when we get there - well, gene-mixing occurs in the traditional human way.
November 11, 2011
Easily one of the best science books I've ever read. Not only does it popularize an exciting (and too-often overlooked) field of science, but it's engaging all the way through, a supremely well written book. You learn that Life and the Earth change and evolve together, with great examples from killer whales to polar bears to people. But this book isn’t just a coffee table, feel-good book full of quirky factoids (though there’s plenty of them!) about a certain field of study. It presents the reader with interesting questions about our own evolution and our current understanding of our planet and tries very hard (and succeeds in my view) to inspire the reader with the wonders of evolution and the history of our planet, complete with references to other books and peer reviewed science articles in case the reader wants to investigate further. I can’t praise this book enough, an awe-inspiring introduction to biogeography! !
February 27, 2021
This is a truly fascinating book, covering how the developments in the field of biogeography have revolutionary impact on how we see Earth.
The book is helpfully set out in chapters which focus on some of the extraordinary biodiversity around the world and its causes.
It answers questions like why are there no polar bears in Antarctica? Why is the wildlife in Australia and New Zealand so different to the rest of the world? What is behind the domination of Northern hemisphere flora and fauna?
The distribution of living things on Earth can all be explained by evolution and plate tectonics. This book outlines how biogeography has changed our views forever. It is well worth a read - every page offers a new idea or insight into life on our planet.
The book is helpfully set out in chapters which focus on some of the extraordinary biodiversity around the world and its causes.
It answers questions like why are there no polar bears in Antarctica? Why is the wildlife in Australia and New Zealand so different to the rest of the world? What is behind the domination of Northern hemisphere flora and fauna?
The distribution of living things on Earth can all be explained by evolution and plate tectonics. This book outlines how biogeography has changed our views forever. It is well worth a read - every page offers a new idea or insight into life on our planet.
December 12, 2015
This is an amazing book about biogeography! For a non-science person, I was able to understand the concepts easily. Dennis McCarthy wrote the book with the layperson in mind. I have a much better understanding of evolution theories and plate tectonics, and how these ideas explain plant and animal distribution. I highly recommend it!
December 3, 2017
Why are there no dragons in Europe? Why are frogs so rarely found on oceanic islands? Well, the answers are complicated. But we can understand this complexity through theories of biogeography. Whereas physicists are still searching for the grand unified theory that will tie general relativity to quantum mechanics, biologists already have an overarching theory for the history of life on Earth. Biogeography explains the relationships between the theory of evolution and the planet on which known life evolved. In
Here Be Dragons: How the study of animal and plant distributions revolutionized our views of life and Earth
, Dennis McCarthy (Buffalo Museum of Science, 2009) explains how these observations all fit together: how movements of the continental plates, oceanic currents, and global climate patterns profoundly affect the evolution and geographic distribution of plant and animal species through both time and space.
As McCarthy recounts the history and development of the discipline that came to be known as biogeography, the reader catches a glimpse of how a scientific field develops. McCarthy describes some of the mysteries that inspired early workers in the field: There were the puzzling distribution patterns of many animal and plant fossils. For example, remains of the Permian freshwater reptile Mesosaurus (one of the first reptiles to return to the water) are only found on the southern-most portions of South America and Africa. There was the question of why isolated land masses, such as South America, Australia, and New Zealand, are modern-day sanctuaries for “living fossils” (extant taxa that appear to have changed little over many millions of years and closely resemble their ancient relatives). In the narrative of his famous voyage, Charles Darwin mused at length about the curious relationship between geographic location and the sorts of animals he found; he speculated, for example, about why the organisms of the Galápagos Islands were exclusively “created on American types of organisation” (1).
Naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace provided some answers. In a paper that can be seen as “the beginning of modern biogeography,” he noted that “[e]very species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a pre-existing closely allied species” (2). Later, he described the distributional divide between Asian and Australian species that runs through the straits separating the South Pacific islands of Borneo and Sulawesi—the striking biotic barrier now known as Wallace’s Line. Geographer Alfred Wegener provided additional clues when, in the early 20th century, he recognized that the world’s continents neatly fit together, almost like jigsaw pieces, forming a supercontinent—an observation that formed one basis for plate tectonics. When viewed against the backdrop of mobile continents, many peculiar biological distribution patterns could be explained.
Recently, our understanding of the world has been deepened through studies of genetic variation among species, in addition to their physical and geographic discrepancies: a new discipline known as phylogeography. Forming a fascinating feedback loop, molecular systematics provides greater insight into the intricate reciprocal interactions between evolutionary and geological history. For example, DNA analyses revealed that the two genera of Galápagos iguanas (marine and land) are roughly 10 to 20 million years old, while their island homes are only 3 to 4 million years old. The explanation for this discrepancy is that the Galápagos, like many oceanic archipelagos, are perched over a rupture in Earth’s crust through which basaltic lavas flow onto the sea floor. These eruptions create seamounts that sometimes grow so large that they eventually emerge from the waters as volcanic islands. The islands will eventually be carried off the underlying rupture and disappear into a watery grave. But before they do, they are colonized by insects, birds, and adventurous plants that will evolve and adapt to fit the demands of their new home. And a younger seamount may pop above the sea nearby and thus pro- vide a still newer home to offspring of these island-hopping species. Once again, biogeographic theory explains the patterns.
Not all islands, however, are volcanic mountaintops rising from the sea, covered with youthful, rapidly evolving species. Some, like New Zealand, are remote continental fragments that are haunted by ancient Gondwanan passengers, such as the reptilian tuataras (whose sphenodontian cousins died alongside the dinosaurs) and primitive Leiopelma frogs (whose closest relatives lived during the Jurassic). Yet other islands are found in the depths of the oceans, where perpetual darkness and crushing pressure isolate deep-sea creatures such as hydrothermal vent tubeworms, much as bodies of water or mountain ranges can isolate terrestrial animals.
After investigating how geography and evolution go hand in hand for animals and plants, McCarthy turns his curious eye toward humans. His penultimate chapter (the longest in the book) offers an overview of how we evolved, why we managed to colonize the entire planet, and how geography influenced our skin color and the development of our myriad idiosyncrasies in language and culture.
Throughout, the author supports his arguments with maps and family trees, although readers with a more academic interest in the topics he discusses will find his reference list of primary literature frustratingly short. McCarthy writes engagingly and generally with an admirable clarity. Here Be Dragons offers an entertaining airplane read. It provides a quick but enthusiastic summary of the fascinating field of biogeography, and it leaves us wanting more. The book delivers on its promise that we will never look at the world in the same way again.
References and Notes
C. Darwin, Journal and Remarks, vol. 3 of The Narrative of the Voyages of H. M. Ships Adventure and Beagle (Henry Colburn, London, 1839); now known as Voyage of the Beagle .
A.R.Wallace, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 16 (2nd ser.), 184 (September 1855); www.victorianweb.org/science/science_texts/wallace_law.html.
NOTE: Originally published in print in SCIENCE magazine (DOI: 10.1126/science.1189901), and originally published online at scienceblogs.com on 24 June 2010.
As McCarthy recounts the history and development of the discipline that came to be known as biogeography, the reader catches a glimpse of how a scientific field develops. McCarthy describes some of the mysteries that inspired early workers in the field: There were the puzzling distribution patterns of many animal and plant fossils. For example, remains of the Permian freshwater reptile Mesosaurus (one of the first reptiles to return to the water) are only found on the southern-most portions of South America and Africa. There was the question of why isolated land masses, such as South America, Australia, and New Zealand, are modern-day sanctuaries for “living fossils” (extant taxa that appear to have changed little over many millions of years and closely resemble their ancient relatives). In the narrative of his famous voyage, Charles Darwin mused at length about the curious relationship between geographic location and the sorts of animals he found; he speculated, for example, about why the organisms of the Galápagos Islands were exclusively “created on American types of organisation” (1).
Naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace provided some answers. In a paper that can be seen as “the beginning of modern biogeography,” he noted that “[e]very species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a pre-existing closely allied species” (2). Later, he described the distributional divide between Asian and Australian species that runs through the straits separating the South Pacific islands of Borneo and Sulawesi—the striking biotic barrier now known as Wallace’s Line. Geographer Alfred Wegener provided additional clues when, in the early 20th century, he recognized that the world’s continents neatly fit together, almost like jigsaw pieces, forming a supercontinent—an observation that formed one basis for plate tectonics. When viewed against the backdrop of mobile continents, many peculiar biological distribution patterns could be explained.
Recently, our understanding of the world has been deepened through studies of genetic variation among species, in addition to their physical and geographic discrepancies: a new discipline known as phylogeography. Forming a fascinating feedback loop, molecular systematics provides greater insight into the intricate reciprocal interactions between evolutionary and geological history. For example, DNA analyses revealed that the two genera of Galápagos iguanas (marine and land) are roughly 10 to 20 million years old, while their island homes are only 3 to 4 million years old. The explanation for this discrepancy is that the Galápagos, like many oceanic archipelagos, are perched over a rupture in Earth’s crust through which basaltic lavas flow onto the sea floor. These eruptions create seamounts that sometimes grow so large that they eventually emerge from the waters as volcanic islands. The islands will eventually be carried off the underlying rupture and disappear into a watery grave. But before they do, they are colonized by insects, birds, and adventurous plants that will evolve and adapt to fit the demands of their new home. And a younger seamount may pop above the sea nearby and thus pro- vide a still newer home to offspring of these island-hopping species. Once again, biogeographic theory explains the patterns.
Not all islands, however, are volcanic mountaintops rising from the sea, covered with youthful, rapidly evolving species. Some, like New Zealand, are remote continental fragments that are haunted by ancient Gondwanan passengers, such as the reptilian tuataras (whose sphenodontian cousins died alongside the dinosaurs) and primitive Leiopelma frogs (whose closest relatives lived during the Jurassic). Yet other islands are found in the depths of the oceans, where perpetual darkness and crushing pressure isolate deep-sea creatures such as hydrothermal vent tubeworms, much as bodies of water or mountain ranges can isolate terrestrial animals.
After investigating how geography and evolution go hand in hand for animals and plants, McCarthy turns his curious eye toward humans. His penultimate chapter (the longest in the book) offers an overview of how we evolved, why we managed to colonize the entire planet, and how geography influenced our skin color and the development of our myriad idiosyncrasies in language and culture.
Throughout, the author supports his arguments with maps and family trees, although readers with a more academic interest in the topics he discusses will find his reference list of primary literature frustratingly short. McCarthy writes engagingly and generally with an admirable clarity. Here Be Dragons offers an entertaining airplane read. It provides a quick but enthusiastic summary of the fascinating field of biogeography, and it leaves us wanting more. The book delivers on its promise that we will never look at the world in the same way again.
References and Notes
C. Darwin, Journal and Remarks, vol. 3 of The Narrative of the Voyages of H. M. Ships Adventure and Beagle (Henry Colburn, London, 1839); now known as Voyage of the Beagle .
A.R.Wallace, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 16 (2nd ser.), 184 (September 1855); www.victorianweb.org/science/science_texts/wallace_law.html.
NOTE: Originally published in print in SCIENCE magazine (DOI: 10.1126/science.1189901), and originally published online at scienceblogs.com on 24 June 2010.
June 13, 2017
A fascinating read on the subject of biogeography, very readable and easy to understand. The chapter on plate tectonics should be required reading for high school science classes, as should "The Battle Over Eden" - a look into how biogeography affected the human race.
November 21, 2024
I was disappointed with this book. I have always had an interest in the subject, since it has this nice intersection of spatial patterns, geologic timelines, and phylogenetics. I didn’t find much that was new compared to what I had read back in school. The author spent a lot of time pleading for the reader to see how powerful this method of analysis/inference can be, but he didn’t get into enough detail to support his claim.
December 21, 2009
Dennis is a buddy of mine, so I picked up his book on biogeography, a subject I haven't delved into since reading Guns, Germs, and Steel freshman year of college. Here Be Dragons is an interesting overview of the history & importance of the topic with dozens of interesting factoids about the spread and evolution of various fauna and flora. The last chapter, on human biogeography & evolutionary psychology, is the most fascinating.
It may go too far, like E.O. Wilson does, to try to reduce every bit of knowledge to a singular scientific cause-and-effect relationship, but overall it's a quick, fun, and interesting read.
It may go too far, like E.O. Wilson does, to try to reduce every bit of knowledge to a singular scientific cause-and-effect relationship, but overall it's a quick, fun, and interesting read.
December 1, 2024
Absolutely brilliant, mindblowing even. An excellent introdution to biogeography. This book really shines in its conclusion chapter, being very articulate and addressing issues in, I think, the most precise and accurate way possible. I cannot express how satisfied I was with the way he draws it all together. I went and bought this book so I can read it again and annotate it! Not entirely sure, but it seems he draws heavily on Guns Germs and Steel (he references it often, and reccomends it), will have to read that next.
May 2, 2016
This is probably the ultimate geographic history, after Guns, Germs, and Steel. But whereas that book dealt with overwhelmingly human matter, this one is all about the entire process of long term tectonic shift and animal evolution. A real star of books in this field.
September 25, 2013
This is a very interesting book on biogeography. I wish the book was longer though. The author's dry sense of humour is also amusing.
October 28, 2016
Interesting overview of the science of biogeography and its importance to many other fields of study.
December 15, 2021
A wonderful book about the scientific discipline of biogeography. This field has always been one of my favorite topics, but I still learned a lot while reading this book. Highly recommended.
November 18, 2019
This fascinating primer on the underappreciated science of biogeography explains the rudiments of how plants and animals are distributed around the globe. The interplay between geological forces, ie: plate tectonics, and evolution have created the world we live in as we now know it.
McCarthy explores the mega events like the break-up of Gondwanaland to the rise of the Panamanian isthmus, connecting north and south America, to the way in which isolated pacific islands have become populated by plants and animals. All of these and more create a fascinating read and a great background for virtually all fields of science!
McCarthy explores the mega events like the break-up of Gondwanaland to the rise of the Panamanian isthmus, connecting north and south America, to the way in which isolated pacific islands have become populated by plants and animals. All of these and more create a fascinating read and a great background for virtually all fields of science!
April 11, 2024
I read this book for a biodiversity course I enrolled in. The topics were very interesting but did not go very in depth, which is fine since this book was meant as an introduction to my course. The topics bounced around a lot and a much of biodiversity laws and rules were talked about but not really named. While reading, this book felt very slow paced. This is not normally a book I would pick up willingly however I did enjoy the read. Topics such as pygmy mammoths and canada penguins were the most memorable.
December 23, 2025
Certainly a nice introduction into the topic of biogeography, it often only scratches the surface, and hypes up biogeography a bit much, but still, nice.
The chapter on human was a bit icky sometimes, especially in it's portayal of violence towards indigenous peoples as an inevitable byproduct of technological progress. no thanks. I'll just ignore that chapter.
The chapter on human was a bit icky sometimes, especially in it's portayal of violence towards indigenous peoples as an inevitable byproduct of technological progress. no thanks. I'll just ignore that chapter.
September 13, 2019
Brief account on the history and uprise of Biogeography. Well written, engaging, for the general public, but still well documented with recent findings, and fluent reading. I would recommend it as an introduction to the importance of biogeographical thought in scientific research.
January 25, 2025
Well-written introduction to the field of biogeography.
¨Biogeography, once a secret delicacy enjoyed only by geniuses, must now be elevated from its current obscurity and placed alongside literature and history as an indispensable component of a truly enlightened education.¨ page 16
¨Biogeography, once a secret delicacy enjoyed only by geniuses, must now be elevated from its current obscurity and placed alongside literature and history as an indispensable component of a truly enlightened education.¨ page 16
June 21, 2013
This is a good primer on biogeography, the science that relates the forms of life to the forms of the Earth. It covers the ground well and is interesting, though not quite exciting. We learn about: the travels and musings of Darwin and Wallace; sea-floor spreading; the isolating effects of the breakup of Gondwana in the southern hemisphere; the barriers (not always geographical) that induce speciation; and the impact of biogeographical factors on the development on human civilisation.
This last item draws overtly on Jared Diamond's milestone of a book, Guns, Germs and Steel, and I would recommend that for a much more in depth treatment of human biogeography. For biogeography across the whole natural world, a much more thrilling book is David Quammen's The Song of the Dodo. Still, this is a grand little book and a good place to start on this eye-opening topic.
Features a few illustrations and a handful of colour plates. Concludes with endnotes, brief bibliography and an index.
This last item draws overtly on Jared Diamond's milestone of a book, Guns, Germs and Steel, and I would recommend that for a much more in depth treatment of human biogeography. For biogeography across the whole natural world, a much more thrilling book is David Quammen's The Song of the Dodo. Still, this is a grand little book and a good place to start on this eye-opening topic.
Features a few illustrations and a handful of colour plates. Concludes with endnotes, brief bibliography and an index.
July 25, 2011
A brief introduction to how the theory of evolution and continental drift gave rise to biogeography. Its always a pleasure discovering new facets of natural history, such as how the Antartic was once teeming with life, but became an absolute hell when it was cut off from the other continents whilst freezing over due to climate change. That there are different 'tribes' of killer whales swimming our oceans. Or how Komodo dragons evolved to dine on pygmy elephants before there were deer and pigs on their islands. The last bits on biogeography's explanation of human history is less interesting since it is already extensively treated by Jared Diamond.
July 19, 2015
A fascinating and inspiring read, a slightly different focus which is not often taught as much as other biological subjects, this book has a great range of basic information (boardering on a little too basic sometimes) whilst providing more advanced insight and a touch of humor, the author is not afraid to show his opinion but this only makes the book more gripping to read, seeing the thought process behind the man.
February 15, 2012
An excellent introduction to the notion of biogeography that tiptoes around some potentially controversial material toward the end, this book is loaded with fascinating examples that help keep what could be a very dry narrative engaging. When in doubt, bring out the pygmy elephants; they always keep things moving along.
January 7, 2013
I had hoped that this book might be useful as a fun supplementary text for one of the classes I am teaching, however it is a little too basic for advanced undergraduate/graduate level. That being said, if you're interested in biogeography, especially from a historical perspective, this book is a great introduction into what the science is about.
July 10, 2012
Simple, educational and full of overwhelming examples .
November 17, 2017
The story of biogeography
May 24, 2012
Fabulous.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews