Mitchell Loughlin’s Reviews > Otherlands: A World in the Making > Status Update

The Triassic was a period of experimentation for animals. Tons of new things were developed. Non-insects learned to fly (or glide to be more honest)
, the first mammal like creature was born. Everything was just a little weird after the previous extinction caused by acidity in the water

1 kg of the gloomy stuff could filter up 22,000 gallons of water a day which is more than the average shower faucet can output in the same period. When approaching other sponges the two colonies would conjoin formula internal rivers if nutrients to keep everyone fed. They would span over trenches and around outcroppings. Said to be the largest ever organism taking up the majority of the “Atlantic” sea floor

Jurassic period gets a lot of attention for its dinosaurs but possibly just as interesting is the life that supports the gigantic lizzards. In oceans where a particular interest to the author. There’s a new reef builder in town. Well perhaps an older one. The glass sponge is a pretty weird boy. The cells can function individually however they can also conjoin into a single mass as a colony.

Species that appear closely related can be found in different environments. Some are individually evolved species that have developed similar adaptations to solve similar problems, while others seem to have migrated across the ocean. The exact mechanism behind this migration is not entirely clear, but it is believed that trees, connected by their roots, transplanted by floods acting as an arc for animals and insects

32 million years ago - The Oligocene
The land masses as we know them today are relatively similar however some may be closer or future away from each other. Revolution continues at its steady pace, the landscape changing the traits most likely to thrive. Grasses begin to take hold in South America. They are hard and grating on the teeth of grazers, adaptions came in the form of ever growing enamels

Despite this I find the topic of the book exceeding fascinating. It’s like a David Attenborough style documentary going back into the geological past to find things even stranger than science fiction could imagine. Bears the size of 10 elk, dwarfism and gigantism caused by the mediterranean sea evaporating. We explore a scene with attention to the creatures who most strongly appear in the fossil records Cool stuff

Starting these notes with a mention of this booking feeling very difficult for me to read. It’s so packed with information and visuals that I have a hard time absorbing the information as someone who does not have a strong mental picture of what they read. For me it’s all outlines unless I really think about something which is not conducive to this type of reading