Life on Earth: A Natural History

LIFE ON EARTH by David Attenborough (and read by him as well) was a good pick to listen to during finals week - not so engaging that I keep listening to find out what happens next at the expense of getting my grading done, but engaging enough to take my mind off my grading and other responsibilities when I needed a break, or was cooking, etc. I will say that I found it more relaxing to listen to in the chapters when he's describing things that I'm somewhat familiar with, but don't know well (i.e. the chapters on plants and invertebrates.) The chapters on vertebrates, however, were somewhat less relaxing to listen to, as I spent the whole time listening very carefully for any mistakes.

One thing Attenborough does very well in this book is show more connect the evolution of traits together, helping explain why certain traits evolved when they did. For example, as vascular plants evolved, there was a selective advantage for getting taller in order to better compete for light. But then, once plants started getting taller, there was a selective advantage to herbivores that could reach the tasty parts of the plants, which led to the evolution of flying insects, which in turn contributed to the evolution of the flowering plants to use those insects as targeted pollinators vs. relying on wind pollination. Some of it is almost certainly adaptationism / just-so-story-ism, but he does an excellent job of connecting various pieces together into a coherent whole.

He does get some stuff wrong -- some factual details that may have just gotten missed in the 40th anniversary update of the text, but also other places where the way he frames evolutionary history is... antiquated at best. The most egregious (in my opinion) is that he repeatedly refers to various living organisms as "primitive", and refers to non-mammalian synapsids (everything that is more closely related to mammals than any other living organism, but is not technically a true mammal -- includes things like Dimetrodon, the sail-back "dinosaur") as "reptiles". Which: No. Absolutely not. Synapsids split from the branch that would become reptiles over 200 million years ago. (He also calls early tetrapods like Tiktaalik "amphibians", which: they were almost certainly amphibious, but they were absolutely not the same as modern amphibians.)

But overall: Enjoyable to listen to Attenborough's narration even without the amazing visuals of a nature documentary. show less

In this unique book, David Attenborough has undertaken nothing less than a history of nature, from the emergence of tiny one-celled organisms in the primeval slime more than 3,000 million years ago to apelike but upright man, equally well adapted to life in the rain forest of New Guinea and the glass canyons of a modern metropolis. Told through an examination of animal and plant life today - with occasional juxtapositions of extinct fossil forms to reveal the origin of living creatures - "Life on Earth" is an astonishing pageant of life, with a cast of characters drawn from the whole range of living animals the world over. Attenborough's perceptive, dynamic approach to the evolution of some four million species of living organisms that show more populate the planet is to trace the most significant thread in the history of each major group. He then proceeds to explain from the evidence of living representatives and fossil remains why certain animals adapted and survived, evolved to more complex and "higher" forms of life, while others, by some inherent limitation imposed by their physiology or structure, failed and became extinct. "Life on Earth" is a book of wonders. A model of clarity and ease as a guide, Attenborough takes the reader around the world with him into jungles where orchids have petals that "impersonate" wasps to attract pollinating insects; to Australia, where honeypot ants force feed nectar to workers of a special caste, then hang them up by their forelegs like living storage jars; to remote mountains in Japan where little monkeys called macaques have learned to combat the winter snows by bathing in hot volcanic springs. show less

As always, David Attenborough, knocks it out of the park! He’s calming and informative voice coupled with a fascinating subject matter make this a brilliant topic for an audiobook. This was a highly enjoyable look through life from the pre-Cambrian age through to today. There are chapters on climate change, environmentalism, and other, topical treatments for today but don’t be forced, this isn’t a crusade but mainly the start of a man’s life‘s love with the natural world.

Attenborough writes really well as he discusses evolution. Truly, a classic.

Brilliant! Some lovely photographs too.

Beautiful pictures!

full of great photographs