The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens--and Ourselves Paperback – March 15, 2022

Arik Kershenbaum is a zoologist, and College Lecturer at Girton College, Cambridge. In this book, he uses his deep knowledge of zoology on this planet to work out what alien life might be like, if and when we find it.He starts from the assumption that both the same physical laws will apply everywhere, and that evolution is the only reasonable mechanism to govern the development of life. We can't say exactly what alien life forms will be like, but we can make reasonable projections of how life forms might move, communicate, and socialize in environments we can plausibly envision existing on other worlds.Kershenbaum takes us through some of the ways evolution has created animals to populate what are from the human perspective truly bizarre and alien environments right here on Earth, including the deep ocean--and the ways very different types of organisms have evolved essentially the same solution to similar problems. An obvious example is birds and bats, both of which have arms, or forelegs if you prefer, evolved into wings. They're not even the only two groups of animals that have evolved that very similar solution, but they're the two most similar that we're all familiar with.He goes on to examine ways in which aliens in a variety of types of environments might move, get energy, and communicate with each other--and perhaps, eventually, communicate with us. He also examines whether we would, if the opportunity arises, consider intelligent aliens as people, or even human. I'm not persuaded by his argument for the usefulness of extending the word "human" to include intelligent aliens; I think it's more reasonable to stick with "people," since I'm not sure these hypothetical intelligent aliens would necessarily be flattered by us deciding we're all the same species. But who knows, we haven't met them yet. It's all speculation, and Kershenbaum's argument is interesting.He's got some really fascinating speculation about what kind of life we might find in the interior oceans of worlds like Saturn's moon, Enceladus, which are potentially capable of supporting life, or whether there may be aliens who, like some of Earth's cephalopods, use the ability to control their displays of color to convey impressively complex communication. These are just specific examples; this is a fascinating and delightful book.Highly recommended.I bought this audiobook.

The author is knowledgeable and has an interesting thesis he makes a solid case for—most likely, there are biologic principles that are universal (across the universe universal), just as there are physics-based principles that must also be universal.Complexity and competition lead to intelligence. Natural selection propels evolution. Convergent evolution (e.g. eyes and wings) is common, and so on. A fine scientific book that is eminently readable for a layman/woman.

I adore this book, and the insights it provided have left me eager to explore more works by the same author. The content was enriching, fostering a genuine interest in delving into additional literary creations from this writer. However, the only drawback lies in its relatively high cost from my perspective. Despite the expense, the book's impact on my reading preferences makes it a worthwhile investment for avid readers seeking valuable content.

I’m reviewing this because I think previous reviews are holding this to a high standard. Like most customers considering this book I have an interest in science but no background or formal education since my last high school biology class was in 1990.This is a good book if speculative biology fascinates you but you’d like more depth than you might see on a show like Alien Worlds. I started with the audio book; lovely narration I should add. I just ordered the book because the author had mentioned several other books for more depth on various topics.I look forward to more. This lad is a great science communicator. Less poetically inspiring than Carl Sagan but definitely not dry. That’s fine for for me since we seem to be trending toward more hyperbolic topical sound bite science like Neil deGrasee Tyson.

A long, long time gone, and a long way from here I spent three years studying animal behavior as a zoology graduate student with an evolutionary bias. From that viewpoint, there’s not a lot radically new in this book, but it’s a good refresher for ideas I haven’t thought about in a long while, and provides a sheaf of references that have been published in the decades since I was up to date.I mainly read it because I am working on a writing project. Now I design Cthulhu.

I thought it was interesting. I think, though, that anyone having taken an introductory course in college zoology likely would already know most of what the author (Arik Kershenbaum) discusses. Mostly, he writes how natural selection / evolution probablyworks on other planets as it has on Earth such that the niches or forms of life might be similar. That is, there would be predators and the preyed upon, equivalents to fish, birds, insects, and maybe mammals, and many others.He doesn't discuss possible consequences of things such as life having combinations of amino acids that are different from the amino acids found in all Earth life forms. Similarly, he doesn't conjecture about life forms having differing proteins, non-carbon bases, or chemical base constituents other than the Earth carbon - hydrogen - oxygen - nitrogen (CHON) bases. All told, it was reasonable speculation but nothing really radical.

Just kidding.But seriously. If they do, this book will explain why. The book is more a lesson in Natural Selection and why it may be a fundamental law of life and evolution, much like a fundamental law of physics; and if so, why we might expect alien life to have far more in common with us (both in appearance and intelligence) than not.The writing can get a little dry, especially towards the close of the book, but given the subject matter, Kershenbaum pulls it off. He is thorough and his examples are engaging. His book is also a great source for other related titles.