The ends of the world : volcanic apocalypses, lethal oceans, and our quest to understand Earth's past mass extinctions

Beskrivelse

Over the past decade has come a revolution in our understanding of global apocalypses. Armed with new technology, scientists have dived into deep time to examine our planet's near-death experiences. The bad news is that they look eerily like our future. Take a wild ride through the crime scenes, from South Africa to the New York Palisades. Meet the obsessive, off-kilter personalities using cutting-edge forensic tools to piece together the weird and wonderful clues hiding in the fossil record - dragonflies the size of seagulls and fishes with guillotines for mouths. A rip-roaring chronicle and a cautionary tale, this book reveals how these five near extinctions gave rise to our modern world - we've never seen so clearly what Armageddon looks like.

Indhold

Seneste udgave,

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. Beginnings -- 2. The End-Ordovician Mass Extinction -- 3. The Late Devonian Mass Extinction -- 4. The End-Permian Mass Extinction -- 5. The End-Triassic Mass Extinction -- 6. The End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction -- 7. The End-Pleistocene Mass Extinction -- 8. The Near Future -- 9. The Last Extinction -- Acknowledgments -- Image Section -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.