Evolution

[draclvr]

I am reading the most fascinating book by Steven Baxter titled Evolution. After a brief prologue about a famous female paleontologist in the year 2031 attending a conference in Australasia, she remembers being on a dig in Montana with her mother as a child when they found a single tooth. As her mother explained the significance of finding a Purgatorious tooth, she began her journey to follow in her mother's footsteps.

Chapter 1 starts circa 65 million years before the present. Because I have always been interested in this field and read about it often, it would be one thing to start discussing what the earth and it's inhabitants were like. But the author tells the story from the perspective of Purga (probably the owner of that tooth!), a tiny little progenitor of the Primate family. Her adventures among the feet of giant dinosaurs in her quest for food quickly draw you into her world. The backdrop is a strange light in the sky - the tail of a huge comet hurtling through space for 5 million years and about to collide with the planet in what is now the Yucatan Peninsula.

Chapter 2 jumps back to 185 million years before the present to set up the planet when Pangea was all the land masses in one. This time we follow the story of an ornitholestes dinosaur name Listener and her mate. Again, you're drawn into their encounters with huge herds of diplodocus dinosaurs 90 feet long and 15 feet tall. I found myself stopping to look up the dinosaurs so could see what they looked like!

Chapter 3 picks up at where the comet impacts earth and what happens after. The impact changes the entire planet. We've all heard how this was the end of the dinosaurs which allowed the rise of mammals like the descendants of little Purga.

Chapter 4 jumps ahead a couple of million years to Texas and the story of a little primate named Plesi.

The book continues with the evolution of life and the planet itself as it goes through massive geologic upheaval and changes in climate and telling the stories of mass extinctions and the evolving primates and even the dinosaurs who survived the comet. I think perhaps you need to have an existing fascination with all this to find it interesting, but I can hardly put it down to go to bed!

[LadyKestrel]

I like Stephen Baxter's Manifold sci-fi series, and I have Evolution sitting still unread on my shelf. I will move it up in my read-soon pile.

I think you might also like Raptor Red by paleontologist Robert Bakker. It's told from the point of view of a female Utahraptor during the Cretaceous period and is quite good. It's out of print now, but I think copies are available on Amazon.

[draclvr]

I read Raptor Red many years ago and loved it!

[LadyKestrel]

I thought you might have read it. I remember seeing Bakker on tv years ago and really enjoyed hearing his theories regarding dinosaurs. Not all his collegues agreed with him on some points, but I liked his enthusiasm. I'll have to do some research to see what he's doing now.