The worst of times : how life on earth survived eighty million years of extinctions
(Book)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published
Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2016].
Format
Book
Physical Desc
xvii, 199 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 23 cm
Status
Oliver La Farge - Adult
576.84 Wig
1 available

Description

Loading Description...

Also in this Series

Checking series information...

Copies

LocationCall NumberStatus
Oliver La Farge - Adult576.84 WigOn Shelf

Extras

Other Editions and Formats

More Details

Published
Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2016].
Language
English

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description
260 million years ago, life on Earth suffered wave after wave of cataclysmic extinctions, with the worst -- the end-Permian extinction -- wiping out nearly every species on the planet. This book delves into the mystery behind these extinctions and sheds light on the fateful role the primeval supercontinent, known as Pangea, may have played in causing these global catastrophes. Drawing on the latest discoveries as well as his own field expeditions to remote corners of the world, Paul Wignall reveals what scientists are only now beginning to understand about the most prolonged period of environmental crisis in Earth's history. He describes how a series of unprecedented extinction events swept across the planet in a span of eighty million years, rapidly killing marine and terrestrial life on a scale more devastating than the dinosaur extinctions that would come later. Wignall shows how these extinctions -- some of which have only recently been discovered -- all coincided with gigantic volcanic eruptions of flood basalt lavas that occurred when the world's landmasses were united into a single vast expanse. Unraveling one of the great enigmas of ancient Earth, this book also explains how the splitting apart of Pangea into the continents we know today ushered in a new age of vibrant and more resilient life on our planet.--Adapted from book jacket.

Reviews from GoodReads

Loading GoodReads Reviews.