Europe : a natural history

Title:

Author:

Flannery, Tim F. (Tim Fridtjof), 1956- author.

Added Author:

Boitani, Luigi,

Personal Author:

Flannery, Tim F. (Tim Fridtjof), 1956- author.

ISBN:

9780802129161

Edition:

First Grove Atlantic edition.

Physical Description:

357 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color), maps ; 24 cm

General Note:

"First published in Australia in 2018 by The Text Publishing Company."

Contents:

Introduction -- The tropical Archipelago: 100-34 million years ago -- Becoming continental: 34-2.6 million years ago -- Ice Age: 2.6 million-38,000 years ago -- Human Europe: 38,000 years ago to the future.

Abstract:

"100 million years ago, the continents of Asia, North America, and Africa interacted to create an island archipelago that would later become the Europe we know today. It was on these ancient tropical lands that the first distinctly European organisms evolved... Tim Flannery explores the monumental changes wrought by the devastating comet strike and shows how rapid atmospheric shifts transformed the European archipelago into a single landmass during the Eocene... As the story moves through millions of years of evolutionary history, Flannery eventually turns to our own species, describing the immense impact humans had on the continent's flora and fauna...The story continues right up to the present, as Flannery describes Europe's leading role in wildlife restoration, and then looks ahead to ponder the continent's future."--from publisher's description.

Subject Term:

Natural history -- Europe -- History.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Main Library	Book	508.4 F585	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Westover Hills	Book	508.4 F585	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

From internationally bestselling author and celebrated scientist Tim Flannery, a history of Europe unlike any before: an ecological account of the land itself and the forces shaping life on it.

In Europe: A Natural History , world-renowned scientist, explorer, and conservationist Tim Flannery applies the eloquent interdisciplinary approach he used in his ecological histories of Australia and North America to the story of Europe. He begins 100 million years ago, when the continents of Asia, North America, and Africa interacted to create an island archipelago that would later become the Europe we know today. It was on these ancient tropical lands that the first distinctly European organisms evolved. Flannery teaches us about Europe's midwife toad, which has endured since the continent's beginning, while elephants, crocodiles, and giant sharks have come and gone. He explores the monumental changes wrought by the devastating comet strike and shows how rapid atmospheric shifts transformed the European archipelago into a single landmass during the Eocene.

As the story moves through millions of years of evolutionary history, Flannery eventually turns to our own species, describing the immense impact humans had on the continent's flora and fauna--within 30,000 years of our arrival in Europe, the woolly rhino, the cave bear, and the giant elk, among others, would disappear completely. The story continues right up to the present, as Flannery describes Europe's leading role in wildlife restoration, and then looks ahead to ponder the continent's future: with advancements in gene editing technology, European scientists are working to recreate some of the continent's lost creatures, such as the great ox of Europe's primeval forests and even the woolly mammoth.

Written with Flannery's characteristic combination of elegant prose and scientific expertise, Europe: A Natural History narrates the dramatic natural history and dynamic evolution of one of the most influential places on Earth.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

A noted paleontologist traces Europe's land, flora, and fauna over 100 million years.Australian explorer and conservationist Flannery (Atmosphere of Hope: Searching for Solutions to the Climate Crisis, 2015, etc.), chief councilor of the Australian Climate Council, offers a fascinating geological and natural history of Europe, from its origins as a tropical arc of islands to the present, as the world faces the challenges of rapidly rising temperatures. European biodiversity, writes the author, has been "destroyed and re-made three times over as celestial and tectonic forces shaped the land." He depicts in colorful detail the variety of wildlife inhabiting the islands along with dinosaurs, including primitive mammals, and strange creatures, such as pythonlike snakes, terrestrial crocodiles with serrated teeth, and "large side-necked turtles." Today, the midwife toada species in which the male gathers up and protects the eggsrepresents Europe's oldest vertebrate family, a survivor of 100 million years of geological catastrophe, including the devastating asteroid crash that precipitated a nuclear winter and, some scientists argue, caused the extinction of dinosaurs. Besides revealing many examples of bizarre animal lifethe blind salamander that spends its entire life in caves, for example, and the perissodactyl, an animal with a horselike head and gorillalike body and limbs with huge clawsFlannery traces the migration of fauna between Africa and Europe. About 12 million years ago, he asserts, "the faunas of Kenya and Germany became almost indistinguishable." Among the fauna were the earliest hominids, which appeared in Europe at least 1 million years earlier than in Africa, although genetic analysis confirms that the genus Homo did evolve in Africa, later migrating to Europe. Around 38,000 years ago, Europe became colonized by a "hybrid human-Neanderthal population." Today, Flannery concedes that a healthy population of carnivores, larger herbivores, and scavengers is making Europe "a wild and environmentally exciting place," but he cautions that efforts at "rewilding" need to be carried out with responsible scientific oversight and that indisputable global warming has real impact.An illuminating natural history and warning for the future. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.