On the Trail Book Club

Put on your walking shoes and join us On the Trail. Get your steps in while discussing fascinating true tales. Bring water & a friend!

In June, we'll be discussing Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds by Thomas Halliday. 

A stirring, eye-opening journey into deep time, from the Ice Age to the first appearance of microbial life 550 million years ago, by a brilliant young paleobiologist

The past is past, but it does leave clues, and Thomas Halliday has used cutting-edge science to decipher them more completely than ever before. In Otherlands, Halliday makes sixteen fossil sites burst to life on the page.

This book is an exploration of the Earth as it used to exist, the changes that have occurred during its history, and the ways that life has found to adapt―or not. It takes us from the savannahs of Pliocene Kenya to watch a python chase a group of australopithecines into an acacia tree; to a cliff overlooking the salt pans of the empty basin of what will be the Mediterranean Sea just as water from the Miocene Atlantic Ocean spills in; into the tropical forests of Eocene Antarctica; and under the shallow pools of Ediacaran Australia, where we glimpse the first microbial life.

Otherlands also offers us a vast perspective on the current state of the planet. The thought that something as vast as the Great Barrier Reef, for example, with all its vibrant diversity, might one day soon be gone sounds improbable. But the fossil record shows us that this sort of wholesale change is not only possible but has repeatedly happened throughout Earth history.

Request the print version.

Request the audiobook [TBD].

Please plan to arrive on time, as the discussion will begin to travel by 8:45 am. All participants will be required to sign a liability waiver at the start of the trail.

All are welcome, Clarkstown residency is not required for this event.

Registration is encouraged. In the event of inclement weather, the discussion will be rescheduled and all registered users will receive an email alerting them of the change.