When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time eBook : Benton, Michael J. By Michael J. Benton

Also known as ‘The Great Dying’. And, no, that honorific is not melodramatic. It’s an event where 90 – 95% of life went extinct. Contrast with that of the famous K Pg Extinction (the Cretaceous Event that destroyed the non avian dinosaurs) that killed off about When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time eBook : Benton, Michael J. When one thinks about mass extinctions, the Cretaceous Tertiary event clearly comes to mind. A mass of literature and media hype ensures that everyone is well acquainted with the demise of the dinosaurs that resulted from a large asteroid impact, often visualised in many a When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time eBook : Benton, Michael J. This book primarily focusses on the Permian Triassic mass extinction, currently considered the worst extinction event in Earth's history. It marked the end of the Palaeozoic and beginning of the Mesozoic Eras, approximately 250 million years ago. There is little evidence When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time eBook : Benton, Michael J. The event that wiped out the dinosaurs has been well discussed in both the scientific and popular media, but the much dramatic extinction at the end the Permian era has only recently come under the spotlight. Most theories of the later event involve an asteroid When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time eBook : Benton, Michael J. To further my studies in entomology. Sorry I thought I was reviewing 'wasps'. 'When life nearly died' has been an interesting read. Although a second hand book, it's in very good condition. When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time eBook : Benton, Michael J.

When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time eBook : Benton, Michael J.: : Books When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time eBook : Benton, Michael J.

Michael J. Benton ò 5 characters

Interesting account of the biggest mass extinction which wiped out 90% of all life on Earth. Well written. Would recommend. When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time eBook : Benton, Michael J. An excellent read, although it seems you can’t get away with writing a palaeontology book without banging on about dinosaurs – personally I would have liked to have read about the animals and plants living immediately before and after the extinction and a wider When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time eBook : Benton, Michael J. I found this book fascinating and revealing. The author approaches the subject as a detective gifted with a sense of humour. Paralleling the extinction event that kiĺled off the dinosaurs with the far mysterious and remote Permian extinction and, ultimately the current extinction event being triggered by human activities. Well researched and well written. A good read for the paleo biologist and geology buff alike. When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time eBook : Benton, Michael J. This is mostly a book about palaeontology, geological sequences and the critters we find entombed in the strata. Much of it is quite dry and reads like a textbook. Michael Benton is professor of vertebrate palaeontology and a prolific writer of textbooks, unfortunately this When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time eBook : Benton, Michael J. The most well known, and well studied, mass extinction is, of course, the KT event of 65 million years ago that saw the end of many kinds of organisms, including the dinosaurs. But in terms of lives lost it's the Permian Triassic (P Tr) event that holds the record for the largest extinction in history. In When Life Nearly Died paleontologists Michael J Benton provides us with an in depth study of, not only the the P Tr event itself but a detailed review of how scientist first came to realize that there was in fact an mass extinction about 250 million years ago. The Permian itself was first studied and named in the mid 1800's by a Sir Roderick Murchison and ever since that time it has remained controversial. When did it start and when did it end? Was there really an extinction event at the P Tr boundary or was that concept just caused by gaps in the fossil record? The study of fossils and fossil bearing strata becomes increasingly difficult as you move back in time but by using what we've learned with our research on recent events we can extrapolate a great deal. To that end Benton spends some time explaining what we know about the KT extinction and applying that knowledge to the much older P Tr extinction. While Benton writes in a layperson friendly way he does assume some prior knowledge on the part of the reader. Out of necessity the text is heavy with Latin names and geological terms. But anyone who has some experience in reading paleontology or geological books shouldn't really have a problem. Following the Permian strata around the world you'll make stops in North America, Greenland, China, Russia and the Karoo formations in South Africa. By studying sedimentary deposits at these wide spread locations scientist hoped to nail down when, in fact, the Permian ended and whether or not there was a mega die off of animals and plants that had been, up to that point, successful. No matter which extinction event you'r talking about there seems to be a vast difference of opinion on what caused them; climate change, plate tectonics, volcanoes and even extraterrestrial disruptions like asteroids, super novas or gamma rays. Each theory has its pros and cons and in some cases it appears that a combination of elements may be the answer. Benton gives you a brief overview of each, explaining why some scientist think their pet theory is a good idea while others take the opposite viewpoint. For me the massive flood basalts of the Siberian Traps are a good bet with eruptions that went on for thousands of years (maybe even a million) and had a major impact on the environment. From reading this book it also seems to me that any number of the random elements that continually disrupt our planet could, simply by chance, occur at the same time with devastating results. Whether it's the Siberian Traps, Methane Sinks or even an asteroid strike, the P Tr extinction event has question than it has answers. If you're looking for a quick, easy answer as to what caused this extinction you won't find it in this book, nor any other for that matter. But the study of past extinctions is an active, fast changing field and theories on how they happened can change at the drop of a hat, a quick look at its turbulent history tells it all. For years no one was sure exactly how long the Permian lasted and it took decades of intense study to finally confirm when it came to an end and we are now pretty sure there was indeed a massive extinction event about 250m years BC (*). But research goes on and new findings will certainly shed new light into the dark recesses of time and possibly change everything we know. Only time will tell. I had no technical or formatting problems with this Kindle edition.(*) for a slightly different take on the P Tr extinction and the state of current research see Douglas Erwin's Extinction, published in 2006 and recently updated in the 2015 edition.Last Ranger When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time eBook : Benton, Michael J.