Mass Extinctions

Mass Extinctions
Author: Stephen K. Donovan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 266
Release: 1991-12
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780231070911

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An examination of one of the most controversial areas in contemporary science, this volume contains a series of essays which relate the present state of knowledge about mass extinction processes. The contributors discuss the evidence used to support the various theories.

Mass Extinctions - Processes & Evidence

Mass Extinctions - Processes & Evidence
Author: Stephen K. Donovan
Publisher: Wiley
Total Pages: 256
Release: 1991-09-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780471945246

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Mass extinctions, the apparently sudden and regular disappearance of large numbers of species from the fossil record, are one of the mostly keenly contested and controversial debates in contemporary science. A great deal of research effort has gone into the topic and certain claims, notably that mass extinction eras display a periodicity of 24 million years, have caused great interest and disagreement.

Mass Extinctions and Their Aftermath

Mass Extinctions and Their Aftermath
Author: A. Hallam
Publisher: Oxford University Press, UK
Total Pages: 334
Release: 1997-09-11
Genre:
ISBN: 0191588393

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The first book to review all the evidence concerning both the dinosaur extinctions and all the other major extinctions - of plant, animal, terrestrial, and marine life - in the history of life. All the extinction mechanisms are critically assessed, including meteorite impact, anoxia, and volcanism. - ;Why do mass extinctions occur? The demise of the dinosaurs has been discussed exhaustively, but has never been out into the context of other extinction events. This is the first systematic review of the mass extinctions of all organisms, plant and animal, terrestrial and marine, that have occurred in the history of life. This includes the major crisis 250 million years ago which nearly wiped out all life on Earth. By examining current paleontological, geological, and sedimentological evidence of environmental changes, the cases for explanations based on climate change, marine regressions, asteroid or comet impact, anoxia, and volcanic eruptions are all critically evaluated. -

Extinctions

Extinctions
Author: Michael J. Benton
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2023-09-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0500778604

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In this vast sweep of our Earths history, Michael Benton brings the deep past to life as never before. Deploying the cutting-edge tools in biology, chemistry, physics and geology that are transforming our understanding of previous environmental cataclysms including the incredible new discovery of a hitherto unknown extinction event he uncovers not only their lethal effects but also the processes that brought about such large-scale destruction. Beginning with the oldest extinction, Benton investigates the Late Ordovician, which set the evolution of the first animals on an entirely new course; the late Devonian, brought on by global warming; the cataclysmic End-Permian, which wiped out over 90 per cent of all life on Earth; and, book-ending the age of the dinosaurs, the newly discovered Carnian Pluvial Event and the End-Cretaceous asteroid. He examines how global warming, acid rain, ocean acidification, erupting volcanoes and meteorite impact have affected conditions on Earth, the drastic consequences for global ecology, and how life in turn survived, adapted and evolved. This expert retelling of scientific breakthroughs allows us to link long-ago upheavals to our modern crises. As todays climate scientists and political leaders grapple to understand these processes and our planet enters the sixth great extinction, these insights from the past may hold the key to survival.

Extinctions in the History of Life

Extinctions in the History of Life
Author: Paul D. Taylor
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2004-11-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1139457977

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Extinction is the ultimate fate of all biological species - over 99 percent of the species that have ever inhabited the Earth are now extinct. The long fossil record of life provides scientists with crucial information about when species became extinct, which species were most vulnerable to extinction, and what processes may have brought about extinctions in the geological past. Key aspects of extinctions in the history of life are here reviewed by six leading palaeontologists, providing a source text for geology and biology undergraduates as well as more advanced scholars. Topical issues such as the causes of mass extinctions and how animal and plant life has recovered from these cataclysmic events that have shaped biological evolution are dealt with. This helps us to view the biodiversity crisis in a broader context, and shows how large-scale extinctions have had profound and long-lasting effects on the Earth's biosphere.

Tempo and Mode in Evolution

Tempo and Mode in Evolution
Author: George Gaylord Simpson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 256
Release: 1965
Genre: Science
ISBN:

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Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities

Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities
Author: Anthony Hallam
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2005-07-14
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0192806688

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This is a book about the dramatic periods in the Earth's history called mass extinctions - short periods (by geological standards) when life nearly died out on Earth. The most famous is the mass extinction that happened about 65 million years ago, and that caused the death of the dinosaurs. But that was not the worst mass extinction: that honour goes to the extinction at the end of the Permian Period, about 250 million years ago, when over 90% of life is thought to have becomeextinct.What caused these catastrophes? Was it the effects of a massive meteorite impact? There is evidence for such an impact about 65 million years ago. Or was it a period of massive volcanic activity? There is evidence in the rocks of huge lava flows at periods that match several of the mass extinctions. Was it something to do with climate change and sea level? Or was it a combination of some or all of these?The question has been haunting geologists for a number of years, and it forms one of the most exciting areas of research in geology today. In this book, Tony Hallam, a distinguished geologist and writer, looks at all the different theories and also what the study of mass extinctions might tell us about the future. If climate change is a key factor, we may well, as some scientists have suggested, be in a period of mass extinction of our own making.

The Sixth Extinction

The Sixth Extinction
Author: Elizabeth Kolbert
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2014-02-11
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0805099794

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ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino. Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

The Mass-Extinction Debates

The Mass-Extinction Debates
Author: William Glen
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 387
Release: 1994
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0804722862

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This book examines the arguments and behavior of the scientists who have been locked in conflict over two competing theories to explain why, 65 million years ago, most life on earth—including the dinosaurs—perished.

Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities

Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities
Author: Tony Hallam
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2005-07-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0191578150

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This is a book about the dramatic periods in the Earth's history called mass extinctions - short periods (by geological standards) when life nearly died out on Earth. The most famous is the mass extinction that happened about 65 million years ago, and that caused the death of the dinosaurs. But that was not the worst mass extinction: that honour goes to the extinction at the end of the Permian Period, about 250 million years ago, when over 90% of life is thought to have become extinct. What caused these catastrophes? Was it the effects of a massive meteorite impact? There is evidence for such an impact about 65 million years ago. Or was it a period of massive volcanic activity? There is evidence in the rocks of huge lava flows at periods that match several of the mass extinctions. Was it something to do with climate change and sea level? Or was it a combination of some or all of these? The question has been haunting geologists for a number of years, and it forms one of the most exciting areas of research in geology today. In this book, Tony Hallam, a distinguished geologist and writer, looks at all the different theories and also what the study of mass extinctions might tell us about the future. If climate change is a key factor, we may well, as some scientists have suggested, be in a period of mass extinction of our own making.