數十億年來，地球從一個被海洋覆蓋的荒涼之地，因火山噴發而緩慢形成了地貌。超級大陸板塊的漂移、碰撞和合併，塑造了今天所知的地球面貌。

 

從一開始的海綿生物，經過數十億年的進化，長出脊椎，勇敢地面對未知的海洋，甚至登上大陸。他們能承受冷與熱、火與冰的考驗。從海洋中的細菌到恐龍的世紀，再到新進化的大型哺乳動物。

 

生物面臨著每一個挫折，滅絕並重新開始演化。隨之而來的數十億年，生命已經學習、適應並衍生。

          

而那些早已滅絕的生命形態，現在，都在亨利·吉（Henry Gee）抒情的散文中復活了。

  

《地球生命簡史》（暫譯）是一個關於生存和堅持的故事，闡明了生命生生不息的微妙平衡。作者使千變萬化的生命畫布變得容易理解、引人入勝。本書所描繪的，是你從未見過的，我們的星球。

For billions of years, Earth was an inhospitably alien place-covered with churning seas, slowly crafting its landscape by way of incessant volcanic eruptions, the atmosphere in a constant state of chemical flux. And yet, despite facing literally every conceivable setback that living organisms could encounter, life has been extinguished and picked itself up to evolve again. Life has learned and adapted and continued through the billions of years that followed. It has weathered fire and ice. Slimes begat sponges, who through billions of years of complex evolution and adaptation grew a backbone, braved the unknown of pitiless shores, and sought an existence beyond the sea.

From that first foray to the spread of early hominids who later became Homo sapiens, life has persisted, undaunted. A (Very) Short History of Life is an enlightening story of survival, of persistence, illuminating the delicate balance within which life has always existed, and continues to exist today. It is our planet like you’ve never seen it before.

Life teems through Henry Gee’s lyrical prose-colossal supercontinents drift, collide, and coalesce, fashioning the face of the planet as we know it today. Creatures are engagingly personified, from "gregarious" bacteria populating the seas to duelling dinosaurs in the Triassic period to magnificent mammals with the future in their (newly evolved) grasp. Those long extinct, almost alien early life forms are resurrected in evocative detail. Life’s evolutionary steps-from the development of a digestive system to the awe of creatures taking to the skies in flight-are conveyed with an alluring, up-close intimacy.