The Eternal Frontier discussion

[Becky]

Please enter your comments about our October Book of the Month, The Eternal Frontier, here. Thanks and happy reading!

[John]

I thought the same thing especially when some of the fossils discussed were simply tooth fragments.
I'm in Act 2 and so far it's all been really fascinating. I've read about the extinction of the dinosaurs before but never anything that went into so much detail about how all other life was effected, what life forms came back first, etc.

[John]

Anyone else taking 8 years to read this book because you do Google image searches to see what every extinct animal he mentions actually looks like?

[Rachel]

I've just finished Act 2 and am also finding it fascinating but quite mentally demanding. It is opening my eyes to so much that I didn't know about. For example, I've just read that evolution at the periphery of a continent is very different to evolution at a continent's heart, due to the different drivers (environment or competition). It makes so much sense now that I think about it, but I just wasn't aware that there were different types of evolution before.

[Rachel]

I'm still reading this, and still enjoying it, but have just come across a possible error in the science on page 174 (of my edition) - Flannery describes carbon dating as measuring the ratio of C-14 to C-13. I always thought it was C-14 to C-12, C-12 being the most common isotope. I'm now wondering how reliable the rest of it is...

[Rachel]

I've just been reading the description of Dan Fisher's experiments on caching meat in ponds - gruesomely hilarious.

[Rachel]

I've just finished this. It took a while, but was well worth it. A hugely wide-ranging book. I'm a big fan of the American national parks, particularly the grand western ones, so the penultimate chapter on the ecological ethics of deciding how best to conserve the landscapes was fascinating.