He has held research positions at University College London and the University of Birmingham, and has been part of paleontology field crews in Argentina and India. Halliday is a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist. Depending on how much CO2 we continue to emit, we could very well be heading towards Eocene-temperature levels far faster than any underlying long term paleontology-cycle would suggest. And, the only way to reduce this prospective increase in temperature is by decreasing our CO2 emissions and flatten the upward trajectory of our atmospheric CO2 concentration.īy studying the distant past, Halliday can envision prospective climate change scenarios. And, we know the temperature ranges during the Eocene were a lot higher than contemporary ones. However, by the end of this century, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) projects that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere could reach levels of CO2 similar to the Eocene (the preceding epoch to the Oligocene ranging from 56 million to 34 million years ago).

Today's atmosphere has a similar composition as during the Oligocene (an epoch ranging from 34 million to 23 million years ago during the Palaeogene period shown within the table above). Halliday indicates that humankind bears a huge responsibility in the trajectory of our contemporary climate change. 'Otherlands' & Thomas Halliday on climate change The table below provides more detailed information about the specific locations and periods covered.

Such time and place most often represent key turning points in the paleontological history of life on Earth. Each chapter covers a specific geological time period and part of the world. And, through the next 15 chapters he goes further back in time to approximately 555 million years ago. Halliday starts the first chapter by going back in time about 20,000 years ago.

Looking forward on a paleontology time scale, humankind will inevitably go extinct. However at each renewal, life takes on completely different forms that are adapted to the new environmental conditions. He observes cyclical changes, including cycles of ice ages and climate warming, and periods of mass extinction followed by periods of mass flourishing. Halliday uncovers for the lay public the vast changes in fauna, flora, topography, and climate over the past 555 million years. The book was simultaneously published in English by Allen Lane (UK and Commonwealth), Random House (USA and Philippines), and Penguin Canada (Canada) in February 2022. He goes as far back in time as approximately 555 million years ago. Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds is a nonfiction book about palaeontology written by Thomas Halliday, a British palaeontologist.

Otherlands a world in the making