Extinction: Evolution and the End of Man - Softcover

Boulter, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0231128371 ISBN 13: 9780231128377

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2005

Synopsis

Sixty-five million years ago the dinosaurs were destroyed in a mass extinction that remains unexplained. Out of that devastation, new life developed and the world regained its equilibrium. Until now. Employing radically new perspectives on the science of life, scientists are beginning to uncover signs of a similar event on the horizon: the end of man. In telling the story of the last sixty-five million years, Michael Boulter reveals extraordinary new insights that scientists are only now beginning to understand about the fossil record, the rise and fall of species, and the nature of life. According to Boulter, nature is a self-organizing system in which the whole is more important than its parts. The system is self-correcting, and one of its tools is extinction. If the system is disrupted, it will do what it must to restore balance. This book is a thoroughly researched introduction to the new developments in the science of life and a chilling account of the effects that humans have had on the planet. The world will adapt and survive; humanity most probably will not.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Boulter is a professor of paleobiology at the University of East London. He is the head of a team analyzing Fossil Record 2, the largest database of information on extinct animals and plants. For twenty years, Boulter has been secretary and editor for the International Organisation of Palaeobotany.

Edition details

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0231128371
• ISBN 13: 9780231128377
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224