Other Lands

Glacial periods and warming of the climate, mass extinctions and periods of mass flourishing. Life on Earth is cyclical, but with each turn it takes on completely different forms adapted to new environmental conditions. We move from shallow water bodies... in Australia, where we see the first microorganisms of the Ediacaran period, to the savannas of Kenya in the Pliocene era, where Australopithecines live, from desert salt flats that will eventually become the Mediterranean Sea, to the tropical forests of Antarctica. Each description — whether it's the color of a beetle's shell, the flight speed of pterosaurs, or the persistent smell of sulfur in the air — is based on the chronicle of fossils. These lost worlds seem fantastic, although some of them have survived on Earth to this day. Paleobiology will unveil the secrets of Earth's past and force us to view the future differently.