The Earth was formed almost 5 billion years ago, with the earliest fossils dating back 3.5 billion years. From those beginnings, 10 million plant and animal species inhabit Earth today; many more have become extinct. This season`s nature books reprise some old favorites, as well as paying homage to the whole shebang.
Niles Eldredge beautifully expresses the stately rhythm of life in Fossils: The Evolution and Extinction of Species. (Abrams, $60). A window into time, the fossil record offers proof of one of the most remarkable theories ever conceived by the human mind-evolution-and this spectacular work presents 250 of the most important examples.
The power of movement depicts an extraordinary compromise among size, structure and mechanical perfection. The flexible back of the cheetah, the fastest land sprinter, permits enormous strides. The sperm whale can descend 1.2 miles underwater and hang motionless for a half hour until prey comes within striking range. John Cooke, in The Restless Kingdom (Facts on File, $39.95), explores animal movement with 170 color photos and informative text.
Africa`s great Rift Valley, a 3,500-mile gash in the Earth`s crust stretching from the Afar Triangle to Mozambique, is a region of unparalleled diversity and a layer cake of fossil discoveries spanning 65 million years. National Geographic photographer Chris Johns tours it in Valley of Life:
Africa`s Great Rift (Thomasson-Grant, $39.95). For the last 14 years, photographer Jonathan Scott has lived and worked among Africa`s great predators. Painted Wolves: Wild Dogs of the Serengeti-Mara (Hamish Hamilton, $29.95) serves as an eloquent tribute to an unfairly maligned creature.
Once part of continental Africa until it broke free 65 million years ago, Madagascar has been a unique workshop for evolution-all island mammals, 225 species of reptiles and 80 percent of its plants are to be found nowhere else. Ken Preston-Mafham surveys nature`s experiment in Madagascar: A Natural History (Facts on File, $45).
Dramatically illustrated with more than 90 full-color plates, Sylvia and Stephen Czerkas` Dinosaurs: A Global View (Mallard Press, $39.98) plunges readers deeply into the lost Mesozoic world. One of the few remaining dinosaur relatives, the alligator has been a source of food, medicine and religious worship. Vaughn Glasgow`s A Social History of the American Alligator (St. Martin`s, $29.95) shows why America`s most magnificent reptile is no croc.
For her latest work, Vanishing Amazon (Abrams, $49.50), photographer-advent urer Mirella Ricciardi dove into the primeval Brazilian rainforest and lived with three ancient Indian tribes. Her photos of their daily lives-hunting, gathering, cooking, caring for children-create an intimate testament to a threatened culture.
A high-fashion approach to photographing 36 endangered animals and plants results in a stunning work, Here Today: Portraits of Our Vanishing Species, by Susan Middleton and David Liitschwager (Chronicle Books, $35). No exotica, these are familiar animals-the river otter, peregrine falcon, desert tortoise, California brown pelican, etc.-presented with a fresh eye.
A marvelous essay into ”unfettered things and untrammeled places,” Elk Country (NorthWord, $39) blends the insights and experience of Canadian wildlife biologist Valerius Geist and the revealing photography of Michael Francis. Michael W.P. Runtz, pays similar care to woodland moose in Moose Country (NorthWord, $39).
Birds, as usual, are well represented this season. Hummingbirds of the Caribbean (Crown, $40), with text by Esther Quesada Tyrrell and photographs by Robert Tyrrell, is a glittering traversal of shimmering glory captured in some of the most dangerous jungles of the Caribbean. In Owls of the World (Running Press, $40) writer Rob Hume and illustrator Trevor Boyer have provided a masterly reference to the 148 species of the hunters of the night.
In splendid Wild Wisconsin (NorthWord, $24.95), Brent Haglund has summoned gifted photographers to capture the glory of delicate spring blossoms in southern Wisconsin, gorgeous summer sunsets beyond Mississippi River bluffs, placid lakes cloaked by blazing fall colors, delicate needles of frost and manic ice sculptures of winter waterfalls. We`ve all seen these wonders;
if only we could interpret them as well as Haglund`s photogs.
Outrageous color schemes and mind-boggling fusions of shape and pattern make coral reefs the most complex and fascinating of marine ecosystems. Photographer Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch`s Reef: A Safari Through the Coral World (Sierra Club, $25) tells the story most irresistibly. More artistic and moody, Jeffrey L. Rotman`s and Joseph S. Levine`s Colors of the Deep
(Thomasson-Grant, $45) holds gorgeous images that speak to the reader on several levels. One creature you don`t want to meet comes across with excitement and flair in Great White Shark by Richard Ellis and John E. McCosker (HarperCollins, 270 pages, $50).
Among the season`s most gaudy coffee table books is The Glorious Constellations: History and Mythology (Abrams, $95) by Giuseppe Maria Sesti, which boasts 672 illustrations. That unique nostalgic collaboration between astronauts and cosmonauts, The Home Planet, has been issued in large format paperback (Addison-Wesley, $22.95). It holds 150 photos and retains its surpassing beauty. Similarly impressive, Lydia Dotto`s Blue Planet: A Portrait of Earth (Abrams, $19.95) is a natural for space buffs.
Science buffs should know that Ronald M. Walker`s classic compendium, Walker`s Mammals of the World has been published in its fifth edition (Johns Hopkins, two vols., $89.95).
Finally, about 500 years ago, six women and two children were buried north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland. Following Inuit tradition, they had been dressed in warm clothing and provided with the goods they`d need for the journey to the Land of the Dead. Their well-preserved mummified bodies were discovered in 1972, and I dare you to thumb through Jens Peder Hart Hensen`s The Greenland Mummies (Smithsonian, $39.95) without lingering and staring in awe.
