Tuesday, August 04, 2020

On the Prowl In Search of Big Cat Origins by Mark Hallett and John H.Harris.

If you are fascinated by tigers, pantheras, lions, animals living in exotic places, sometimes dangerous for men, and if you are fascinated by their origins, you can't miss this new book by Columbia University Pres

s On the Prow
l In Search of Big Cat Origins by Mark Hallett and John H.Harris.


The history of these animals is lost in the time; they appeared after the destruction of Dinosaurus because of the fireball 65.5 million of years ago.


This book is not just a research of these new mammals on Earth, the so-called big cats, no: this one is a paleontologic study, technical, accurate and detailed of the various parts of these mammals; a study that passes through skulls, teeth, muscles, power of the various animals, without forgetting their modality of killing; their anatomic structure is analyzed in great detail. 


A chapter will involve also the relationship of men with these big cats; we find traces in caves of the prehistoric man who had several confrontations with these animals, but respected them and added them in drawings for being remembered; later, Ancient Rome will lose the respect that other countries and cultures had developed for these animals, sometimes a real veneration; lions, tigers, became moments of show, but not only in big arenas; the massive interest of men for these animals forced them at abandoning some places where they were peacefully living in.


These mammals covered most part of the Earth.

 

At the beginning of the times Earth was an immense, united land, called Pangea; once that there was that terrible trauma and the extinction of dinosaurus, caused by an asteroid, the world changed composition; there wasn't anymore just a big sea and an only land, but many lands and various seas. The Earth started in that never-ending process of changements, continuing its evolution in this moment as well.


Completely and wonderfully illustrated by Mark Hallett, this book is great as a gift for children, teen-agers, adults. 


Highly recommended.


I thank Columbia University Press for the physical copy of this book.


Anna Maria Polidori 

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