In this period of rapid change in climate and environments, scientists are looking for past changes in order to understand more about what may happen in the future.

The fossils in the rocks of Arabia are a unique archive of these changes. They extend from the Precambrian ‘snowball Earth’ of 600 million years ago, to the first land plants 400 million years ago, to dinosaurs 75 million years ago, and to fossils of Homo sapiens 85 thousand years ago. These fossils tell a story of climate change and evolution that is unrivalled. This book will chart these changes explaining how they illustrate evolution and climate change and make us think differently about the world of today.

The book will be fascinating for professional and amateur palaeontologists alike, those interested in the geology and science of Arabia – and also people who are just interested in how life developed through time and the role of one subcontinent in that story. The book will uniquely bring together the many strands of fossil evolution and climate change focussing on Arabia as a melting pot and conduit in the development of life. The author, Prof Mike Stephenson is a palaeontologist with over 25 years’ experience, and a successful science writer with three acclaimed books on the geosciences. The book will summarise up-to-the-minute science from the peer-reviewed literature in an easy-to-read format with attractive photos, simple maps and diagrams, and a bibliography of sources and further reading for the enthusiast.

If you are interested in the history of life and climate change and want see how a subcontinent had a role in the development of the modern world, this book is for you!