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Like the bird whose death signaled dangerous conditions in a mine, the demise of animals that once flourished should give humans pause. How is our fate linked to the earth's creatures, and the cycle of flourishing and extinction? Which are the simple workings of nature's order, and which are omens of ecological disaster? Does human activity accelerate extinction? What really causes it? In an illuminating and elegantly written account of the widespread reduction of the world's wildlife, renowned paleontologist Niles Eldredge poses these questions and examines humankind's role in the larger life cycles of the earth, composing a provocative general theory of extinction.
List of contents
| Geologic Time Chart | |
| Prologue | |
| Ch. 1 | Extinctions Are for Real | 1 |
| Ch. 2 | Santa Rosalia, or Why Are There So Many Kinds of Living Things? | 21 |
| Ch. 3 | Biotic Armageddon: Deja Vu Over and Over Again | 49 |
| Ch. 4 | Patterns and Clues in Paleozoic Mass Extinctions | 79 |
| Ch. 5 | Extinction, and the Rise and Vicissitudes of Modern Life | 99 |
| Ch. 6 | Without a Helping Hand: Causes of Mass Extinctions in the Geological Past | 131 |
| Ch. 7 | The Ice Man Cometh: Climate Change, Human Action, and the Great Pleistocene Extinctions | 171 |
| Ch. 8 | The Canary's Song: Land Use, Habitat Reduction, and Extinction | 209 |
| Annotated Bibliography and Suggested Readings | 231 |
| Index | 237 |
About the author
Niles Eldredge
Summary
How is our fate linked to the earth's creatures, and the cycle of flourishing and extinction? Does human activity accelerate extinction? And what really causes it? This account of the widespread reduction of the world's wildlife examines humankind's role in the larger life cycles of the earth, composing a provocative general theory of extinction.
Additional text
"A powerfully impassioned plea for awareness--awareness of what we are doing, of what the consequences will be, and of what we can still do to reduce the biotic holocaust ahead."
