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Book: Europe: A Natural History
Quotes of Book: Europe: A Natural History
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  1. Tim Flannery _ Europe: A Natural History

    When, in 1970, palaeontologist Lambert Beverley Halstead pointed out that Scrotum is a scientifically valid name and the first ever proposed for a dinosaur, a shudder went through the normally stolid taxonomic community. Things may not have been helped by the fact that Halstead seems to have been obsessed with dinosaur sex. His most memorable work is an illustrated compendium of dinosaurian copulatory positions-a sort of reptilian Kama Sutra-that includes a 'leg over' manoeuvre by the sauropods, the largest dinosaurs of all-that many consider highly dubious. On at least two occasions Halstead took to the stage, where, with his wife, he demonstrated some of the more arcane postures.*
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  2. Tim Flannery _ Europe: A Natural History

    Defining Europe is a slippery undertaking. Its diversity, evolutionary history and shifting borders make the place almost protean. Yet, paradoxically, Europe is immediately recognisable. With its distinctive human landscapes, once-great forests, Mediterranean coasts and Alpine vistas-we all know Europe when we see it. And the Europeans themselves, with their castles, towns and unmistakable music, are every bit as instantly recognisable. Moreover, it is important to recognise that Europeans share a highly influential dreamtime-in the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome. Even Europeans whose forebears were never part of this classical world claim it as their own, looking to it for knowledge and inspiration.
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  3. Tim Flannery _ Europe: A Natural History

    There are now more wolves in Europe than in the United States, including Alaska!
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  4. Tim Flannery _ Europe: A Natural History

    But more than anything else, the species owes its spread to a strange phenomenon discovered in 1930 by the biologist Lancelot Hogben. Heavens knows what led him to do it, but Hogben found that if you injected an African clawed frog with the urine of a pregnant woman, within hours it would lay eggs. Before chemical pregnancy test kits became available in the 1960s, African clawed frogs were kept in labs and hospitals worldwide for confirming pregnancies. Many escaped, or were released, including the founders of a population that became established in South Wales.
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  5. Tim Flannery _ Europe: A Natural History

    beg them to compare the Oostvaardersplassen not with their dreamtime Europe of the classical age, but with a long-vanished continent where large mammals, rather than agricultural practices, shaped landscapes.
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  6. Tim Flannery _ Europe: A Natural History

    Heck's attempted rewilding serves to reinforce a very important fact: Europeans are now the mind over their land. What they desire, the land will become. And if their desires are toxic and dangerous, then that will manifest itself in nature. Europeans cannot escape responsibility for shaping their environment; as even withdrawal from management will have profound consequences.
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  7. Tim Flannery _ Europe: A Natural History

    The Moors, who settled many parts of southern Europe in the eighth century, proved to be enthusiastic naturalisers. They are strongly suspected of, or were clearly responsible for, the introduction of at least four important mammal species into Europe: the Barbary macaque, porcupine, genet and mongoose.
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  8. Tim Flannery _ Europe: A Natural History

    There are parallels, I think, between the impact of Europeans on brown bears, and the effects of domestication, particularly on dogs. Both sets of selective pressure have altered the behaviour and diet of the beasts in question. Admittedly, Europe's bears still live in the wild, but an argument can be made that the Europeans have domesticated wild Europe itself. It would be well worthwhile assaying the behaviours, diets and reproductive patterns of Europe's wild animals to determine just how greatly human hunting and habitat alteration have changed them.
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  9. Tim Flannery _ Europe: A Natural History

    We are often appalled at the tragic prevalence of wildlife poaching in Africa, where only a resolute if underfunded band of park guards works to prevent the total elimination of rhino and elephant.* But 70 years ago things were even more desperate in Europe, for Europe had lost its megafauna, and even its wisent had been driven into extinction in the wild. Its largest surviving wild creatures were antelope-sized, and even some of them were being exterminated by the most determined poaching. The lessons of history should make the world more helpful to the dozens of unsung African Renzo Videsotts working today. With a little help, they may succeed in conserving some of Africa's fauna.
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  10. Tim Flannery _ Europe: A Natural History

    Malta has a rich and varied faunal history, including dwarf elephants and hippos, and a giant, flightless swan that stood taller than the island's pachyderms.
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  11. Tim Flannery _ Europe: A Natural History

    But in 1972 Dutch palaeontologists Bert Boekschoten and Paul Sondaar announced that the bones came from an unusual, tiny hippo, which they named Phanourios minor-'small manifested saint'; the cave had been visited for centuries by villagers seeking the fossilised bones of their 'saint', who they believed could cure various maladies.1
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