Species Seekers (WW Norton & Co)

This is the story of the adventurers who risked death to discover strange life forms in the farthest corners of Earth. Beginning with Linnaeus, a colourful band of explorers made it their mission to travel and bring back astonishing new life forms. Acclaimed science writer Richard Conniff brings these daredevil "species seekers" to life. Alongside their globe-spanning tales of adventure, he recounts some of the most dramatic shifts in the history of human thought. At the start, everyone accepted that the Earth had been created for our benefit. People weren't sure where vegetable ended and animal began, they couldn't classify species and didn't understand the causes of disease. But all that changed as the species seekers introduced us to the pantheon of life on Earth - and our place within it.