Mass Extinctions and Their Aftermath - Hardcover

Hallam, A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198549172 ISBN 13: 9780198549178

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1997

Synopsis

This is a systematic review of the major mass extinctions in the history of life. It covers all groups of organisms - plant, animal, terrestrial, and marine - that have become extinct alongside the geological and sedimentological evidence for environmental changes during the biotic crises. All proposed extinction mechanisms - climate change, meteorite impact, volcanisms - are critically assessed. In this text the demise of the dinosaurs is put into the proper context of other extinction events. This book is intended for undergraduates in Europe and graduate students in the US, studying geology, palaeontology, or evolutionary biology, and their teachers. It should also be of interest to research scientists in adjacent subjects.

About this title

Review

Hallam and Wignall provide a sobering antidote to simplistic applications of extraterrestrial "crash-bang-you're-dead" interpretations. (New Scientist)

the book is unique in that all major extinction intervals are considered ... Mass Extinctions and their Aftermath will richly reward the efforts made by students and laymen to come to grips with the material presented ... the book is well-written, comprehensive, copiously referenced and closely reasoned. It succeeds in its aim to be the foremost scientific introduction to the phenomenon of mass extinction on virtually every level. Hallam and Wignall's volume is the only comprehensive "single author" treatment of the major features of the entire paleontological extinction record. It deserves a wide audience within and outside the earth science community. (Times Higher Education Supplement)

The authors have provided a comprehensive and well-documented account of all the known mass extinctions of plant and animal life which have occurred on this planet. (Aslib Book Guide, vol. 63, no. 3, March 1998)

'...It is a pleasure to recommend a book that should be purchased by anyone (yes, even undergraduates) interested in geology...This book....represents an impressive summary of the literature...a valuable addition to the mass extinction literature...' (S.Conway Morris, Geological Mag. No.5, 1998.)

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0198549172
• ISBN 13: 9780198549178
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 328