Ten Million Aliens: A Journey Through the Entire Animal KingdomThis fascinating scientific foray into the animal kingdom examines how the world’s creatures—weird, wonderful, and everything in between—are inextricably linked. Life on planet earth is not weirder than we imagine. It’s weirder than we are capable of imagining. And we’re all in it together: humans, blue whales, rats, birds of paradise, beetles, mollusks the size of buses, gladiator slugs, bdelloid rotifers that haven’t had sex for millions of years, and water bears—creatures that can be boiled, frozen, and fired off into space without dying. We’re all part of the animal kingdom, appearing in what Darwin called “endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful.” In this audacious book, Simon Barnes brings together all of the world’s creatures, seeking not what sets them all apart but what unites all. He explores arcane knowledge from the works of Darwin to James Joyce and David Attenborough to Sherlock Holmes, in addition to telling his own wild, don’t-try-this-at-home adventures in humorous and compulsively readable prose. Fascinating, entertaining, and perfect for Discovery Channel enthusiasts, Ten Million Aliens will open your eyes to the real marvels of the planet we live on. |
Contents
Endlessness | 15 |
Slugs19 | 22 |
Allspice antkiller | 28 |
My family and other family | 36 |
Spineless Primates 42 Lemurs and archbishops | 48 |
The profile of WinniethePooh | 61 |
Neon Meate Dream of | 65 |
Octafish Glass sponge 65 Il buono il brutto e il cattivo | 72 |
Do I know you? | 101 |
bright Flatworm 104 The elephant in the corridor | 113 |
Unkillable bears Aardvark | 119 |
Cans and cans of worms Idiurus | 127 |
Tipping the velvet worm Rodents | 134 |
Velvet worm 134 Dirty rats | 142 |
earthworm Earthworm 149 Nightleaper | 153 |
That breathtaking breath | 162 |
Other editions - View all
Ten Million Aliens: A Journey Through the Entire Animal Kingdom Simon Barnes No preview available - 2015 |
Ten Million Aliens: A Journey Through the Entire Animal Kingdom Simon Barnes No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
aardvark African ancestor Animal Kingdom antelopes arthropods bat hawk bateleur beak beautiful bees beetles birds of prey blue body butterfly called carnivores colony coral creatures Darwin dolphins earth eggs elephants evolution evolutionary evolved extinct eyes feathers feet female fish flatworms flight frogs gastropods giant golden poison frog humans hummingbirds inches insects invertebrates jellyfish kill lampshells land legs lion live look Luangwa Valley male mammals marsupials means million molluscs move nature never numbers ocean octopuses oysters passerines perhaps phylum planet predators pretty rats ray-finned fish reptiles river rodents seen shark shells sing slugs snakes sometimes song species spiders squid stuff survive swim tail teeth tell tentacles termites there’s thing tiny tion velvet worms vertebrates walk wasps whales what’s wild world wildlife wings wonder worms