The Story of the World in 100 Species

This whimsical, colorfully illustrated compendium of interesting, influential organisms past and present from Lloyd (What on Earth Happened?), a British former journalist, gives the impression of a children’s encyclopedia of naturalism, but with in-depth information that makes it worth browsing for adults. The task of ranking species’ success is rather arbitrary by nature, literally comparing not merely apples and oranges but dinosaurs and durians. Lloyd breaks it down by giving half the slots to living and extinct species whose evolution predates the dawn of agriculture, crediting them with such accomplishments as colonizing the land and sea and beginning to evolve mental skills, and the other half to those which have come to thrive in the presence of humankind, including food flora and fauna, drugs, and companion animals. If there is a problem here, it’s that the lack of a formal bibliography to support the hundreds of pages of facts and a focus on older research may induce readers’ skepticism about some of Lloyd’s information. Nevertheless, Lloyd shares the history of each of his entrants with casual enthusiasm and a sense of wonder, in articles that stand alone well for readers interested in browsing and which together give a sense of biodiversity as a source of joy. [em](Oct.) [/em]