Gripping account of how plants and animals shaped each other

adminFebruary 28, 20251 Min Read

Illustrator?s signature must be included in all reproductions Carboniferous forest. Illustration of a flooded forest containing primitive plant species and fauna that existed during the Carboniferous period (360 to 286 million years ago). At bottom centre is a Hylonomus reptile. Its prey, a giant dragonfly (Meganeura monyi) is at left. The plants included Lepidodendron, an ancient lycopod also known as a scale tree. The Carboniferous forests gave rise to the coal deposits that fuel industry today. — An artist’s impression of an environment where prehistoric plants thrived

Christian Jegou/Science Photo Library

When the Earth Was Green
Riley Black (St Martin’s Press (US, available now; UK, later this month))

The behaviour of plants is invisible to the naked human eye. They operate on timescales our imaginations can’t entertain, and they run roughshod over familiar categories of self, other and community. I confess that I find them boring.

Luckily, others don’t – Riley Black, a palaeontologist and an occasional New Scientist contributor, for one. Wandering among (or is it through?) a 14,000-year-old aspen clone, a single organism made…