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

Humans unmistakably have impacted the world we live in. The mass of wild mammals makes up only 4% of the total, the rest being humans and domesticated pets, farm animals. Chickens make up 60% of all birds. The ocean is losing oxygen, the world is warming.

Yet.

3.5 billion years ago the planet looks very different. The moon is 15% closer, the land is barren, the seas appears to be as well. However the beginning of life stir in the depths. The kingdoms are being forged, quite literally, the animal plant and bacterial kingdoms emerge in a simple manor that foretells the roads we walk upon today

In ancient Africa, then near the South Pole fish started to form in their modern styling, though at the time this was near the South Pole. Red flesh became more common as opposed the white. This means that rather then escaping quickly and otherwise drifting things began to exert more continuously. This is the same reason why the meat closer to the bones of chickens is darker. It had to work more so if needs > blood

Life on earth continues to look more foreign as we delve backwards through time. The animals are smaller, less specialized and yet there are things we can point to as the early signs of our own evolution. Backbones and arms begin to appear and the food chain starts to form. Prior to that the only traits that evolved were those of filter feeding and sedentary lifestyles.

Into the ocean. This super heated, mineral laden breath is the building block of life below. Organism’s have evolved to use these vents for food and heat and rely completely on them to sustain themselves. While some still rely on the “marine snow” which falls from the surface, these creatures have adapted to harsher masters

Deep in the ocean light ceases to exists. “A rainbow is consumed”. The assumptions we make on what is needed for life don’t apply. While on the surface we basc in the sun rays that is a luxury not afforded to the dwellers below. And yet they thrive. How? The answer is found in the incessant battle of destruction and creation of our Mother Earth. As plates collide cents of deep earth minerals are exhausted…

Fire from spreading to the seeds at the top of the tree and the leaves purposely burned quickly to not allow the fire time to grow.

We jump 100 million years back in time where almost no animals lived. The big predators were armored spiders. Plants are almost exclusive to water but fungus it taking a hold on land. They take about licean which uses a symbiotic relationship to balance out eachtihers strengths.

At this point most big animals don’t exist yet and the oxogen levels were through the roof. This caused tons of fires and so the plant life had to evolve to grow quickly and in ways that could either deal with or benefit from fires. One example was a large tree that had no wood. It grew scale like bark and the roots wove together to give support that otherwise would come from a hardened core. The bark prevented…

This book is interesting because it takes a trait of some plant or animal found in the focal record and uses it to tell a story of why it was evolved. It talks about threats, advantages and synergies developed in making it thrive and then what leads to its downfall

The coniferous period where 90% of the earths coal was laid down into the ground. This led to the carbon levels in the atmosphere dropping dramatically

This book is a hard read. Really not feeling motivated to get into it.

That being said it’s super interesting when you sort through all the imposing words