The Earth: A Biography of Life: The Story of Life On Our Planet through 47 Incredible Organisms

by Elsa Panciroli, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens (Contributor)

A beautiful and informative history of life on our planet.

It is difficult to conceive of the vast scale of the history of life on Earth, from the very first living organisms sparking into life in hydrothermal deep-sea vents to the dizzying diversity of life today. The evolution of life is a sweeping epic of a tale, with twists and turns, surprising heroes and unlikely survivors.

The Earth beautifully distils this complex story into a meaningful scale. In taking a closer look at 47 carefully selected organisms over fifteen periods in our planetary history, this book tells the whole story of life on Earth, and the interconnectedness that unites us through our ecosystems and planetary history.

Prepare to be confounded by the ingenuity of evolutionary biologies, humbled by our own brief part in this epic history, and disquieted by our disproportionate impact on the world we call home.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Biology, Nature, Evolution, Animals

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 22, 2022

Reviews

[Mansoor · Rating 2 out of 5]

سکس مزایای خودش را دارد. به ژن‌ها امکان می‌دهد از نو ترکیب شوند و جهش‌هایی تصادفی بسازند شبیه بلیط‌های لاتاری انتخاب طبیعی. این مزیت جاندارانی را که به شکل جنسی تولید مثل می‌کنند به توانایی تطبیق بهتر با تغییرات محیطی، فشار جانوران شکارگر، بیماری و انگل‌ها قادر می‌سازد. سکس اس اساس فرآیند تکامل است. به زبان ساده‌تر، حیات روی زمین، بدون سکس، پیچیدگی و شور و هیجان امروزش را نداشت
...
و با این‌همه امروز خیلی‌ها، از جمله خود نویسنده، دارند بزدلانه و مزورانه جنسیت بیولوژیکی را انکار می‌کنند

[The Inquisitive Biologist · Rating 5 out of 5]

A careful selection of 47 vignettes, The Earth – A Biography of Life combines corrections to common misconceptions with Panciroli's inspired writing into an excellent pop-science book. Read my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2022...

[Chris Inman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really brilliant combination of the latest knowledge spanning the disciplines of geology, palaeontology and evolutionary biology. Obviously such an expansive subject (that of the evolution of Earths and life on it) spans quite a bit of information, and the author brilliantly deals with this by focusing on the “highlights” of each era, eon, etc…
Not only informative but it also sheds light on the grand scale of life; really makes you realise how we’re just another branch on the evolutionary tree…but what an incredible journey so far to get to this point.
It also incentivises thought into the fragility of the planet and the life it hosts.
Really, really enjoyed it.

[Mark Jeffs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this general natural history book from Panciroli. It was a great approach to introducing some key events in the history of life on earth. It reads very well and it has fit into a nice slot of reading during my lunch breaks at work. With a 2-3 page description of each organism presented you can easily break this up and learn something new each time you pick it up.

It was presented very well. My only criticism is about the choice of images. Some of them were older reconstructions that looked a bit out of place. The pterosaur and wooly mammoth are some glaring examples. Could have done with a collaboration with a palaeoartist especially considering every image is given a full page.

That being said this is well worth a read and a great structure and approach.

[Daniel Čižmár · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice book for someone who does not know much about paleontology and the history of life. For others, it is too general. I enjoyed the first book "Beasts before us" more.

[Bob Small · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the authors "The Beasts before Us", it was informative clear and told me lots I didn't know. Well, "The Earth: a Biography of Life" does what "Beasts" did for mammals, to the whole history of life on our planet. And it is just as good. I got it for Christmas, and it was read before new year. The idea of looking at the development of life through 47 different organisms created a strong narrative, which in turn meant you could read a lot of facts without realising you were doing so. Each chapter was written to be read on its own, so if you wanted to dip in and out you could still do so. I didn't want to dip, I plunged. This book turned a flu ridden betwixmas into a magical rest. Buy it!

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. Nice idea but combination of analogues that didn't quite work and skimping on images let this down.Stock images were not well captioned and were not well linked in some cases to the organism being described. For the price I would have expected illustrations of the same quality as books by Steve Brusatte or My Michael Benton where as much care has been taken of the illustration as of the text.

[william :)) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique format - using individual case studies to illustrate the timeline of Earth - does prove interesting at times, however becomes formulaic and uncaptivating at points. There is a lot of well-researched information, but if you are hoping to learn about any organisms apart from the ones listed in the table of contents, this book isn’t for you.

[Kyri Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting something more creative in terms of the 'incredible organisms', and overall this was a rather mundane book with the introductory portions reading like a 6th grade earth sciences textbook.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of life on our planet through 47 incredible organisms!

Fascinating to learn we are more closely related to the Dimetrodon than they are to dinosaurs

[John King · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb book. I suspect I missed something by buying it on Kindle because the pictures could have been better.
If only we could get the stupid creationists to read this wonderful book.

[Ian B O'Hara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read

Like Beasts Before Us this is a truly great read. It is very informative. I look forward to her next missive.

[Justin Andell · Rating 3 out of 5]

solid topics but hard to follow if you don’t have a background in geology or biology

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️

[Damen Chan · Rating 2 out of 5]

古生物學是相當迷人的科學，透過研究古生物的遺骸，往往能帶來生命和歷史的洞見。

這本《直立猿與牠的奇葩家人》，就是透過介紹四十七種經典的古生物，由元古宙的真核生物談到人類世的人類，去折射地球的生命史。

在每一章節，作者會先用簡單幾頁介紹一個地質年代，又再用十多頁介紹幾種當代生物，結果讀來比較像流水帳，對我這種古生物學的門外漢而言，反而是介紹了太多，卻不好找重點；讀完二百多頁全書，的確是浮光掠影的走了一遍地球深歷史，卻又㧓不住什麼，讓我有點茫然若失。

或許流水帳的結構，是本書讓我不能喜歡它的理由吧。