Animal Weapons

The Evolution of Battle

By: Douglas J. Emlen

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

In Animal Weapons, Doug Emlen takes us outside the lab and deep into the forests and jungles, to explain the processes behind the most intriguing and curious examples of extreme animal weapons-fish with mouths larger than their bodies and bugs whose heads are so packed with muscle they don't have room for eyes. As singular and strange as some of the weapons are, we learn that similar factors set their evolution in motion. He looks at everything from our armor and camouflage to the evolution of the rifle and the structures human populations have built across different regions and eras to protect their homes and communities.

Animal Weapons brings us the complete story of how weapons reach their most outsized, dramatic potential, and what the results we witness in the animal world can tell us about our own relationship with weapons of all kinds.

©2014 Douglas J. Emlen (P)2014 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Emlen's excellent writing will draw in readers intrigued by astonishingly powerful weapons, both in the wild and in the military, and how they have evolved owing to selective pressures." ( Library Journal)

Loved it!

I loved this book. The mix of science and history, science and human nature and animal weapons was great!
Sean Runnette is fantastic as always.

Fantastic

I can’t believe I found a book that combines my love for ecology and biology with military strategy and history. It’s absolutely fantastic and I learned so much. Thanks!

Very well written, I really enjoyed this book.

I heard about this book on the Meat Eater Podcast and it sounded interesting based on the discussion about it. It was even better than expected. The author seamlessly weaves together so many interesting stories, history, facts, and research. He also makes an effort to drive home other important points that I personally appreciated. Definitely check this one out.

What I’ve been looking for.

Thank you for this work. It’s beautiful to me. Without this type of understanding we will never fully realize our mistakes. We have no natural weapon because we are human and we are human because we had no weapon, to wield/guide our fate. Nothing to focus on power or constrained to a reproductive algorithm.
Will read again.

Riveting

Excellently written, brilliantly presented. Good book worth reading / listening too. I enjoyed the parallels between animal and human weapons.

Excellent and easy read

The only thing I found a bit silly was that the author really kind of overdid it with his adjective usage throughout the book. But, that’s my only complaint. It was an interesting story that blended military history and animal weapons. Plus the reader of this book, Sean Runnette, is one of my favorites.

Fun read

Enjoyed the book. Good tie-in’s between animal weapons and their sizes and how they change over time and the similarities to changes in military weapons over time. Good read.

Great book!

loved this book. But the narrator has a problem pronouncing s's and they sound like "sh", which was annoying. The book deserves better!

Wanted to like it. it didn't pull me in though.

The nation could have been better and more inviting. A little to much back and forth and not enough story.

so I wrote a book

the author should have read the book. the information is repetitive 1/3 of the book could be removed. I heard him on a podcast and became interested in the book. the reader is fake passionate about the subject or the performer is fake passionate. his reading cadence is different than that of the author when they talk about the same subjects so it throws it off. if you remember when you were a kid and you watched cartoons and then they had a 2 minute commercial Halo at the beginning of the part right after the commercial they would say and what happened on last episode is this that's how this book is kind of written. he connects the dots and then recaps connecting the dots.