A Celebratory Wild Ride Through the History of Life on Earth

Source: Mike Bird/Pexels

"This is the story of Earth like you’ve never seen it before—from the first spark of life to prehistoric monsters to the rise of humans… and all the weird stuff in between."

We live on a magnificently diverse planet, on land, in water, and in the air, and it's difficult for me to imagine there would be anyone who wouldn't be astonished by what and who we are surrounded by and wouldn't wonder how we ever arrived where we are. I always find myself amazed by my diverse surroundings and repeatedly ask myself and others, "How did we evolve to where we are?" For that and other reasons, I was thrilled to learn about Lindsay Nikole's new book Epic Earth: A Wild Ride through the History of Life on Our Planet. Here's what she had to say about this readable, astonishing, and comprehensive evolutionary journey.

Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Epic Earth?

Lindsay Nikole: I wrote Epic Earth to share the extraordinary story of how life has evolved over billions of years on our planet. I studied zoology at Oregon State University, and during my courses, I became completely fascinated by evolution. Not only the general mechanisms of it but also the basic fact that our knowledge of the prehistoric world goes far beyond the “Ice Age” and the Age of the Dinosaurs. That was a totally new concept to me. Learning about the synapsids (mammal ancestors) from the Permian Period that gave rise to mammals during the Jurassic, the massive insects and their relatives from the Carboniferous, and the earliest, alien-looking animals from the Cambrian. I just wanted to keep learning as much as I could.

Source: Wellfleet Press

I couldn’t believe I hadn’t learned this badass story of our planet until I was 20 years old, and I wanted to share this new knowledge with whoever would listen! So, these were some of the first topics I highlighted when I started creating educational videos about animals online. I was thrilled to find an audience that wanted to learn about the prehistoric world along with me. Eventually, I was compelled to build a “timeline” or mental map of how all of this played out, which ultimately gave rise to Epic Earth.

Since I started creating content five years ago, my channels have been dedicated to animal life—past and present—and how they’re all biologically connected.

MB: Who do you hope to reach?

LN: I hope to reach anyone who has even the slightest interest in the prehistoric world. This book can find anyone—an 8-year-old who wants to learn more about the dinosaurs; a teenager who felt drawn to an exhibit at the natural history museum on a field trip; a parent who, on a walk in their neighborhood, wondered how everything around them came to be. The world has so much for us to learn, and we as humans are very curious, so I hope to reach any minds that are ready to explore something new but don’t know where to start.

MB: What are some of the topics you consider, and what are some of your major messages?

LN: This book covers tons of different developmental topics. “How did jaws evolve?” It’s pretty crazy to think about a time when jaws didn’t exist yet. Same with limbs—the process of becoming land animals that can move around with ease took a really, really long time. “How did dinosaurs become superior for over 100 million years?” “How did some animals start to fly?” “Were there life forms around that would be alien to us today?”

You’ll learn about this thing called Prototaxites, which was thought to be some sort of fungus tower that could get to 26 feet tall—they were around before trees existed! It turns out, as of this year, it might not have been a fungus at all, but instead, a life form unlike any of the “Big 3” (plants, animals, and fungi) that we know today. How crazy!

You’ll notice a phrase brought up in the book often: “that we know of.” The world of paleontology (and science, in general) has so many mysteries, and new discoveries are constantly being made. So much about our understanding of prehistoric life has changed over the years, and it will continue to do so. The book expresses this as a beautiful thing: Unfortunately, the fossil record can’t hold on to the true existence of everything that ever lived, but these mysteries allow us to stay curious about our planet and its past. They inspire us to keep exploring and keep asking questions, which is what makes being human such a wonderful thing.

I hope this book shows readers how deeply connected we are to the natural world. I think we tend to think of our species and nature as an “us-and-them” when in reality, we are nature! We come from nature! And we have been evolving within these evolutionary mechanisms for billions of years—as has everything else living around us. And so, we have a responsibility to protect our natural world and maintain it, just like it has done for us.

MB: How does your work differ from others that are concerned with some of the same general topics?

LN: My passion for prehistory happened later in life, so my book provides a more introductory yet comprehensive perspective on our deep past. It also has a more casual tone, more exploratory than scientific (while maintaining scientific accuracy). My goal is to make learning about zoology and paleontology fun and accessible for anyone, and this is true for Epic Earth as well!

Evolutionary Psychology Essential Reads

Five Ways to Combat Evolutionary Mismatch

Outsmart Stone Age Instincts That Make You Unhappy

MB: Are you hopeful that as people learn more about life on our fascinating but wounded planet, they will come to respect our wild neighbors and our shared homes?

LN: Yes, I’m very hopeful! The more we learn about our ecosystems, the more profound respect we build for them. These are more than our wild neighbors; they’re our evolutionary cousins. The birds outside your window in the morning, the spiders and ants in the yard, the trees you pass on your morning walk—we’re biologically connected to all of them, if you go far back enough!

This book will show you that they have been evolving for just as long as we have, because we all came from the same ancestor in our deep past. So, they have just as much significance on our planet as we do. That’s something worth celebrating and protecting.