Book description
An awe-inspiring journey through the eons and across the globe, in
search of visible traces of evolution in the living creatures which have
survived from earlier times and whose stories speak to us of seminal
events in the history of life.
The history of life on Earth is far older - and far odder - than many
of us realise. In 'Survivors', acclaimed author Richard Fortey traces
this history not through fossil records, but in the living stories of
organisms that have survived nearly unchanged for hundreds of millions
of years and whose existence today affords us tantalising glimpses of
landscapes long vanished.
For evolution has not obliterated its tracks. Scattered across the
globe, strange and marvellous plants and animals have survived virtually
unchanged since life first began. They range from humble algal mats
dating back almost two billion years to hardy musk oxen, which linger as
the last vestiges of Ice Age fauna.
Following in Fortey's questing footsteps, 'Survivors' takes us on a
fascinating journey to these ancient worlds. On a moonlit beach in
Delaware where the horseshoe crab shuffles its way through a violent
romance, we catch a glimpse of life 450 million years ago, shortly after
it diversified on the ocean floor. Along a stretch of Australian
coastline, we bear witness to the sights and sounds that would have
greeted a Precambrian dawn. Finally, in the dense rainforests of New
Zealand where the secretive velvet worm burrows into the rotting timber
of the jungle floor, we marvel at a living fossil which has survived
unchanged since before the dissolution of the Gondwana supercontinent.
Written with Fortey's customary sparkle and gusto, this wonderfully
engrossing exploration of the world's oldest flora and fauna brilliantly
combines the best science writing about the origins of life with an
explorer's sense of adventure and a poet's wonder at the natural world.
Utterly compelling, eye-opening and awe-inspiring, this is a book for
anyone with an interest in evolution, in nature, in the remarkable scope
of geological time and our own modest interaction with it - in short, in
life itself. Praise for THE EARTH: 'A dazzling achievement. Richard
Fortey is without peer among science writers.' Bill Bryson
Praise for LIFE: 'This is not a book for people who like science books.
It is a book for people who love books, and life… wonderful.' Tim
Radford, Guardian Richard Fortey retired from his position as senior
palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in 2006. He is the author
of several books, including 'Fossils: A Key to the Past', 'The Hidden
Landscape' which won The Natural World Book of the Year in 1993, 'Life:
An Unauthorised Biography', 'Trilobite!' and 'The Earth: An Intimate
History'. He was elected President of the Geological Society of London
for its bicentennial year of 2007, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society.
