From internationally best-selling 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.
