Earth a biography

I have previously jokingly called the "Earth biography" a rite of passage for science writers; many authors try their hand at it at some point.

Fortunately, the Earth is big and time is deep, so there are numerous ways to tell this story. Here, it is palaeontologist Elsa Panciroli's turn.

Earth a biography

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Next to many unusual examples by which to tell the story of life's evolution, her writing stands out for correcting common misconceptions and for its inspired language.

Panciroli has rounded up the most iconic and important organisms into 47 vignettes.

The selection of organisms includes some of the usual suspects; after all, no self-respecting earth biography could do without trilobites, ammonites, or Archaeopteryx. More interesting are the lesser-known representatives of some of life's major evolutionary transitions.

So, as an example of the first animals with a notochord (the precursor of the