Extinctions - Michael J. Benton

A Journey Through The Great Mass-extinction Events That Have Shaped Our Earth: 'deeply Informed And Readable' Nature 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 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 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.