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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Interesting to go back in time, I thought it would go forward. Looking forward to rereading in the future. Lots of googling required to look up animals - not required but interesting to look up!
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Took me a while, I wish I lived a life where I could just read this book until I actually understood and remembered. Such a feat of merging nature and human.
adventurous
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
Ever wondered what it would be like to experience the world of the past, such as an afternoon on the mammoth steppe, a field trip among Triassic pterosaurs, or a dive among the many and bizarre creatures living in Cambrian seas? Paleontologist Thomas Halliday is here for you. Each chapter moves the reader a bit further back in time and paints a brief but vivid picture of what one's surroundings would have felt, looked and sounded like if one were suddenly thrust into the world of yesteryear.
It wouldn't hurt to have some familiarity with general chronology and taxonomy of prehistoric life and what was happening on Earth during the relevant time periods, but it is by no means required to enjoy this wild adventure. You will definitely want to seek out renderings of all the species as each is mentioned in the text — many of them I hadn't heard of before and they are all positively delightful. The featured creatures in each chapter are not necessarily the flashiest or most well-known superstars from the time period, which was refreshing. In fact, many are surprisingly unassuming. The chapter that mentions muscles (dark meat vs. white) was particularly enlightening. I had never given much thought to the colors of muscles/meat before, much less considered that the differences could be due to function, though it makes perfect sense now. My only complaint: More illustrations, please!
It wouldn't hurt to have some familiarity with general chronology and taxonomy of prehistoric life and what was happening on Earth during the relevant time periods, but it is by no means required to enjoy this wild adventure. You will definitely want to seek out renderings of all the species as each is mentioned in the text — many of them I hadn't heard of before and they are all positively delightful. The featured creatures in each chapter are not necessarily the flashiest or most well-known superstars from the time period, which was refreshing. In fact, many are surprisingly unassuming. The chapter that mentions muscles (dark meat vs. white) was particularly enlightening. I had never given much thought to the colors of muscles/meat before, much less considered that the differences could be due to function, though it makes perfect sense now. My only complaint: More illustrations, please!
informative
slow-paced
informative
slow-paced
The book is very informative, though quite dense at times. I found myself reading a couple of chapters at a time and then reading something else for a bit. As someone who already knows a fair bit about the subject matter it was enjoyable but I don’t know if this a particularly good introductory book on these topics. I found myself googling quite a lot of the animal names as well just to get a clearer picture of the scene too.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
informative
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced