Listing multiple nouns with "to" in between? [duplicate]

It may be a bit too idiomatic instantly to grasp. However:

Animals can live anywhere, from forests to deserts ... and ... from said deserts to deepest pits of the oceans.

The second "from," and that which follows it, is dropped in the name of brevity and verve. Fascinating, isn't it?

You can use as many "to's" as you like, by the way. Like this:

Animals can live anywhere, from forests to deserts to deepest pits of the oceans to mountaintops to cities to other planets so long as there's a bit of oxygen and lunch is served regularly.

Are the forests and deepest pits of the oceans extremities of a range, with deserts being a middle ground?

Typically this is not intended to indicate a middle point between two extremes, but another dimension or member of a category. Deserts, deepest pits of the oceans and forests are three members of a category varying along multiple dimensions, not along a single continuum. The phrase generally gives emphasis to the breadth, of a concept, and how the application of the concept is universal.

If I say that I listen to lots of different artists

From Beethoven to Led zeppelin

You don't really have an idea to what kind of music I listen (except Beethoven and led zeppelin), because music is quite arbitrary (and so are living environments).
Unlike "from 1 to 10", which leave no doubt about the numbers I mean. So to make it more clear I can say.

From Beethoven to Justin Bieber to Led zeppelin

It makes the range of artist bigger. The order does not matter. But give you a bit more insight to my music taste.

Animals can live anywhere, from deserts to forests to deepest pits of the oceans. (changed the order)

Still means that animals can live on the same place

So the multiple 'to's are used to clearify the range between arbitrary terms

Consider:

I took a small plane across North America, from New York to Chicago to Denver to San Francisco.

from...to...to...to...etc

is a way of traversing a range, whether actual (as in my example) or figurative (as in the OP).