Lifelike: Two-legged Snakes, Zombie Sharks, and Other Extinct Animals

What color was the ichthyosaurus? How many calories per day did a megalodon require? Can you fly using abdominal ribs (and what are those things anyway)? What did snakes with legs, turtles without shells, or amphibians with fins look like? Who ate whom, how did they move around, and what did they breathe? Today, paleontology is answering questions that nobody would have dared to ask just ten years ago. Using examples of 27 very different animals, a prominent Russian geologist and science promoter, Andrey Zhuravlev, discusses new discoveries made through paleontological research. Readers encounter all kinds of creatures, from small organisms reminiscent of worms that swam the oceans over 500 million years ago, to giant lizards whose footsteps shook the earth just 40,000 years ago, and the terrifying megasharks.

Moscow: Alpina Non-Fiction, 2024.