Review
This is probably not a book for animal lovers; at least not for those who find them appealing because they are fluffy. For many animals amongst the plethora of species that inhabit the Earth their ultimate fate is to be eaten, often in a thoroughly unpleasant way. For the predatory species, doing this is natural and not doing it means extinction. Thus, for three billion years or so since the advent of life, the methods and skills employed to catch and kill prey have been refined and extended. This book reviews the tactics deployed. In doing so it touches on the history of life, what constitutes life, its origination, its evolution and its survival or hurdles, including major impacts from space. But the bulk of the text, and the illustrations (striking line drawings by Trudy Nicholson), catalogues method. The Three Billion Year Arms Race, the book's subtitle, is an apt metaphor. On land, in the sea and the air every predator has its own method. Sometimes sheer strength and speed are the vital weapons, as seems to be the case with sharks. This is augmented by smell - some sharks can detect the scent of a suitable victim in one part in 10 billion of water - and by behaviour and sight - sharks cruising below their prey, which are then seen silhouetted against the light at the surface. On other occasions methods amaze: insects caught with sticky tongues, venom spat at prey, parasites that eat their prey from the inside. Although unpleasant, it is real life and the ingenuity of nature is much in evidence here. The author describes the topic well, and ranges far and wide across the world of nature from insects to reptiles, birds and mammals. An interesting read for those with stong stomachs. (Kirkus UK)
Product Description
It is an airborne death machine, capable of taking off backward, accelerating in a fraction of a second, making unbanked turns or even a somersault at full speed, and stopping on a dime in mid-air. It's able to lift double its own weight, and is capable of making up to 400 kills a day. No, it's not the Pentagon's newest high-tech helicopter, but a dragonfly. This winged warrior is just one of the many battle-scarred creatures that fly, swim, and walk through the pages of "Evolutionary Wars," an extensively illustrated guide to nature's most ingenious means of attack and defense. Here on the front lines of the war of natural selection, early warning systems, sonar, stealth technology, chemical agents, and deadly weapons clash in the ultimate Darwinian struggle for superiority and survival. Participants include whales that can blast ultrasonic sound intense enough to kill, frogs able to secret lethal toxins that attack the nervous system, lizards who distract predators by shedding a piece of tail that continues to wiggle, and, finally, the ultimate weapons system which no other species has been able to compete with-- the human brain. From the earliest bacteria and viruses through parasites, plants, and fungi to all creatures great and small, "Evolutionary Wars" is the story of an arms race that's been raging in the air, on land, and at sea for the last three billion years. Full of fascinating facts and anecdotes, it is perfect reading for natural history buffs, science lovers, and armchair generals.
