Living Planet: A new, fully updated edition of David Attenborough’s seminal portrait of life on Earth

Product Information

Please Note: This book has been transferred to Between the Covers from another database and might not be described to our usual standards. Tibet, which before the collision of the continents had been a well-watered plain along the southern edge of Asia, was not only pushed upwards but gradually deprived of its rainfall by the young mountains and so changed into the high cold desert that it is today; the upper reaches of the Kali Gandaki lost much of the rain that had given the river its initial erosive power and shrank inside its vast valley; and on the site of the ancient sea there now stood the highest and newest mountains in the world containing, within their fabric, the remains of ammonites. Here and there, the two narratives may overlap slightly, but the variety of animals and plants is so immense that I have been able, in most instances, to illustrate such episodes with species other than those described in the earlier book.

By the time it has settled down and fallen over its last cascade, the water becomes tranquil and rich with nutrients from its banks. By the end of this book, it is difficult to say which is the more astonishing - the ingenuity with which individual species contrive a living, or the complexity of their interdependence on each other and on the habitations provided by our planet. Even now with the understanding of how important biodiversity is, how crucial it is to maintain the balance in ecosystems, there are still so many different species under extreme threat.Their chests and their lungs are also particularly large, so they are able to take in more air with a single breath than a lowlander can. To show the force of nature responsible for this, Attenborough stands in front of an erupting volcano in Iceland and handles a piece of basalt; the Giant's Causeway is an example of what happens to it over a great length of time. In a striking example of how similar processes produce similar effects, lava tubes are even found on the Moon and on Mars.

A fine UK first edition, first printing hardback in a fine unclipped dustjacket - All my books are always securely packed with plenty of bubblewrap in professional boxes and promptly dispatched (within 2-3 days) - SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR - Pictures of the book are available upon request. The great peaks of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri that a few days back you glimpsed through gaps in the canopy of rhododendrons as white shining pyramids several miles above are now behind you. Despite this, it is one of the best adapted desert animals: it can go without water for ten times as long as a man. Although I’ve listened to him narrate several of his books on audio, this is the first time I’ve actually bought and read one but it’s impossible not to hear his voice in my head as I was reading this. Where waves meet rocks and cliffs, the bands between low and high tides are narrow, and creatures have developed according to their dietary and safety needs.As you leave it, you leave behind all the birds and the mammals that depended on the pine trees, directly or indirectly, for shelter and food.

Many of the creatures and science facts do show up in the films Attenborough appeared in, but this is not just a transcript of the films. Endpapers with light offsetting, boards slightly splayed, very good in a slightly spine-sunned good only dust jacket with several pinholes in back panel photo, moderate edgewear and a few small tears. From the oceans, it has spread even to the summits of the highest mountains as animals and plants have responded to the changing face of the Earth. How this came about was, until the middle of the 20th century, the subject of great controversy among geologists and geographers.Here, there is only just enough light for the pine trees to survive, but it is extremely cold during the winter. Lava froth is thrown high above the main plume where the howling wind catches it, cools it and blows it away to coat distant rocks with layers of grey prickly grit.

Unlike other animals, they did not have to depend solely on bodily changes to protect themselves from the cold. On a Costa Rican beach, Attenborough observes female ridley turtles arriving at the rate of some 5,000 an hour to deposit their eggs.In this new edition, the author, with the help of zoologist Matthew Cobb, has added all the most up-to-date discoveries of ecology and biology. It’s honestly just incredibly sad to think about the loss of whole species and how it’s going to continue to happen.