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A review by cassandrat
Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms: The Story of the Animals and Plants That Time Has Left Behind by Richard Fortey
2.0
Very unstructured. More of a slog than a romp. There is a good level of referencing and crediting scientists, but there is additional description and attention to the scientists that sometimes makes me feel like I learn more about the author and other scientists than the plants and animals. I want an abridged version that keeps the parts describing locations where we find flora and fauna, what we know about them, and how we know what we know. Then, I want it structured in a way that makes sense. The mystery reveal of animals isn't really a mystery reveal because there are no clues or context.I like that the author starts with current day and transitions to past day, but it's all a bit jumbled. There is some reference to a tree of life and moving up and down, but I haven't a clue how that structured the book or how we are supposed to be following along. He talks a lot of the base and the top and the roots of trees of life and animals and the analogies with time are a bit mixed up throughout the book it seems.
Chapter 1: is generally good and focused about horseshoe crabs
Chapter 2: is sparse about velvet worms. lots of filler.
Chapter 3: is about really cool stromatolites or slimy mounds, but becomes unbearable because it's also sparse and filler heavy. He talks about the stromatolites long before actually defining what a stromatolite is - this happens a lot in the book.
Chapter 4: starts talking about national parks and bacteria and that's cool. has better diagrams. then kind of goes on a tangent...a related tangent but not why we are here.
Chapter 5: is all over the place. Why are we reading the author's "quiet contemplation"? We are never fully introduced to one creature before another is introduced and then we go back to the first. It's just bizarre. We then "expand on the subject of worms and worminess" wasn't the chapter on velvet worms a good place for that? Jellyfish are in here though, and that's cool. Again, I feel like more time is spent on flowery language than communicating clearly about jellyfish.
Chapter 6: finally the green stuff! Every chapter I wonder if maybe we will get to the green stuff now. pretty focused narrative here on Huperzia. The transition to China and Ginkgo-Cycads is a little rough. It gets a little unfocused towards the end.
Chapter 7: lungfish is the most primitive living form, around for hundreds of millions of years. they live to be 50 or 80 years old! the celeocanth is also covered in this chapter. There is a little too much about the author in this chapter in my opinion.
Chapter 8: again we learn the name of an animal many words before knowing what it is. This chapter covers special mammals and birds. Tinamou. Echidna.
Chapter 9: is a bit of a slog. Musk ox. Midwife toads. This chapter gets into the Americas and extinction of animal species. Not really sure why.
Chapter 10: is a summary of sorts, going over the timeline again and perhaps also generalizations about the "survivors" and their characteristics.
Chapter 1: is generally good and focused about horseshoe crabs
Chapter 2: is sparse about velvet worms. lots of filler.
Chapter 3: is about really cool stromatolites or slimy mounds, but becomes unbearable because it's also sparse and filler heavy. He talks about the stromatolites long before actually defining what a stromatolite is - this happens a lot in the book.
Chapter 4: starts talking about national parks and bacteria and that's cool. has better diagrams. then kind of goes on a tangent...a related tangent but not why we are here.
Chapter 5: is all over the place. Why are we reading the author's "quiet contemplation"? We are never fully introduced to one creature before another is introduced and then we go back to the first. It's just bizarre. We then "expand on the subject of worms and worminess" wasn't the chapter on velvet worms a good place for that? Jellyfish are in here though, and that's cool. Again, I feel like more time is spent on flowery language than communicating clearly about jellyfish.
Chapter 6: finally the green stuff! Every chapter I wonder if maybe we will get to the green stuff now. pretty focused narrative here on Huperzia. The transition to China and Ginkgo-Cycads is a little rough. It gets a little unfocused towards the end.
Chapter 7: lungfish is the most primitive living form, around for hundreds of millions of years. they live to be 50 or 80 years old! the celeocanth is also covered in this chapter. There is a little too much about the author in this chapter in my opinion.
Chapter 8: again we learn the name of an animal many words before knowing what it is. This chapter covers special mammals and birds. Tinamou. Echidna.
Chapter 9: is a bit of a slog. Musk ox. Midwife toads. This chapter gets into the Americas and extinction of animal species. Not really sure why.
Chapter 10: is a summary of sorts, going over the timeline again and perhaps also generalizations about the "survivors" and their characteristics.