Nursery Earth: The Wondrous Lives of Baby Animals and the Extraordinary Ways They Shape Our World

A biologist takes us on a quest to seek out the world’s most extraordinary?—?and sometimes most bizarre?—?baby animals, from kangaroos to flamingos to squid, showing how important these young creatures are to the ecosystems they inhabit. Illustrations.
"An astonishing safari of infant animals, from baby kangaroos to flamingos to squid, and the essential role they play in Earth's ecosystems"--
An eye-opening, globetrotting journey into the wild and wondrous ways baby animals come into being and play their part in the cycles of life on Earth
From the author of Monarchs of the Sea, a first-of-its-kind journey into the hidden world of baby animals—hailed as “a gobsmacking delight!” (Sy Montgomery, New York Times–bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus) It’s time to pay attention to baby animals. From egg to tadpole, chick to fledgling, they offer scientists a window into questions of immense importance: How do genes influence health? Which environmental factors support—or obstruct—life? Entire ecosystems rest on the shoulders (or tentacles, or jointed exoskeletons) of animal babies. At any given moment, babies represent the majority of animal life on Earth. In Nursery Earth, researcher Danna Staaf invites readers into the sibling (and, sometimes, clashing) fields of ecology and developmental biology. The tiny, hidden lives that these scientists study in the lab and in the wild reveal some of nature’s strangest workings: A salamander embryo breathes with the help of algae inside its cells. The young grub of a Goliath beetle dwarfs its parents. The spotted beak of a parasitic baby bird tricks adults of other species into feeding it. Mouse embryos can absorb cancerous cell grafts—and develop into healthy adults. Our bias toward adult animals (not least because babies can be hard to find) means these wonders have long gone under-researched. But for all kinds of animals, if we overlook their babies, we miss out on the most fascinating—and consequential—time in the lives of their species. Nursery Earth makes the case that these young creatures are not just beings in progress but beings in their own right. And our planet needs them all: the maggots as much as the kittens!
An eye-popping, narratively compelling safari through animal infants—from egg to metamorphosis, from cicadas to squids—and how essential “baby” animals are to life on Earth, whatever their form and lifespan When we imagine animals, we typically think of them in their adult forms—cats rather than kittens, full-grown fish rather than minuscule eggs. But at any given moment, the vast majority of animals on Earth are, in fact, babies. Nursery Earth sets out to give this vital stage of life its due, revealing fascinating aspects of biology by considering how different creatures grow and develop. Why do most animals (perhaps 90 percent of species) go through a developmental phase at the start of their lives in which they look and act completely different from their parents (and even inhabit entirely different habitats)? And why and how are eggs and embryos, larvae and hatchlings, and all manner of other early life forms crucial to ecology and conservation, food security, and human health? Marshaling the latest evidence-based research, reporting from the labs and outposts of biological discovery, and recounting tales from a lifetime studying animals, Danna Staaf delves into these questions and more. On her quest to explore animal development, Staaf brings readers on her travels, seeking elusive squid eggs on a research ship in the Gulf of California and witnessing the cacophonous emergence of cicada Brood X on the east coast of the United States. Throughout, photographs and illustrations offer readers a peek at the fascinating and sometimes-strange babies she studies, creatures like the juvenile echidna “puggle” and the caterpillar snake mimic: a baby moth that looks and acts just like a venomous snake. Over and over, we learn how important animals’ earliest life stages are to the ecosystems they inhabit, and how vulnerable they are to perturbations like pollution and climate change. Nursery Earth achieves something one might think impossible: helping us appreciate and love baby animals even more than we already do.