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By plunging us back into the 550 million years of the history of life on Earth, the paleontologist signs “The Worlds of Yesterday”, a story that resonates.
Interview by Baudouin Eschapasse
At the origins. Couple of diplodocus. These giant reptiles from North America lived in the Upper Jurassic, about 155 million years ago.
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Thomas Halliday, born in Edinburgh thirty-three years ago, is one of the rising figures of modern paleontology. This researcher, at the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Birmingham, publishes yesterday’s worlds, in which he explains the role played by the environment in the evolution of species.
Point :Telling the story of the world over half a billion years is quite a gamble. How did your book project come about?
Thomas Halliday: When people learn that I am a paleontologist, the first question they ask me is often: “When would you have liked to live?” The answer is simple, I would have loved to see the moment when the Mediterranean Sea filled with water. This episode occurred six million years ago. Rare are the books…
akg-images/akg-images (x2) – Desiree Adams /SP