Are we now entering a mass extinction event? What can mass extinctions in Earth's history tell us about the Anthropocene? What do mass extinction events look like and how does life on Earth recover from them? The fossil record reveals periods when biodiversity exploded, and short intervals when much of life was wiped out in mass extinction events. In comparison with these ancient events, today's biotic crisis hasn't (yet) reached the level of extinction to be called a mass extinction. But ...

Harvard’s acclaimed geologist “charts Earth’s history in accessible style” (AP)“A sublime chronicle of our planet." –Booklist, STARRED reviewHow well do you know the ground beneath your feet?Odds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked by poison gases, drowned beneath ocean, perched atop a mountain range, or roame...

The epic story of the beginning of life on Earth from the much loved and respected naturalist, writer and broadcaster, Sir David Attenborough.Spanning billions of years, Attenborough's time-travelling narrative brings the reader face to face with the first animals that ever existed. By using the latest technology, we are finally able to see for ourselves how these early animals would have looked like and how they would have lived. Attenborough also shows us how some of the evolutio...

**Sixty easty-to-read essays that enlarge our understanding of how climate change affects our daily lives, and arms us with the incontrovertible facts we need to make informed decisions about the future of the planet, and of humankind.“A breath of fresh air: just the facts, efficient and easy to understand.” —Scientific American**Global Weirdness summarizes everything we know about the science of climate change, explains what is likely to happen to the cli...

The Palaeozoic or Primary Era spans a period of time ranging from 542 million to 251 million years ago. The name Paleozoic, derives from the fact that, in the past, it was considered the first geological age. The Paleozoic covers a range of about 300 million years, giving rise to many forms of life, until the appearance of thecodonts, commonly believed to be the ancestors of dinosaurs.

Plants have profoundly moulded the Earth's climate and the evolutionary trajectory of life. Far from being 'silent witnesses to the passage of time', plants are dynamic components of our world, shaping the environment throughout history as much as that environment has shaped them. In The Emerald Planet, David Beerling puts plants centre stage, revealing the crucial role they have played in driving global changes in the environment, in recording hidden facets of Earth's history, an...

A paleontologist shows what life was like on our planet long before the early humans emerged through words and illustrations.Paleontologist Dr. Mark P. Witton draws on the latest twenty-first century discoveries to re-create the appearances and lifestyles of extinct, fascinating species, the environments they inhabited, and the challenges they faced living on an ever-changing planet. A worthy successor to Charles Knight's beloved 1946 classic, Life through the ...

How long do humans have left on Earth? Using cutting-edge science that revolutionises our understanding of evolution, Michael Boulter explains how we may be closer to our own extinction than we imagined.Sixty-five million years ago the dinosaurs were destroyed in a mass extinction event that could not have been predicted. Out of the devastation, new life developed and the world regained its natural equilibrium. Until now. Scientists, employing radically new perspectives on the scie...

There are few stories more remarkable than the evolution of life on earth. This Very Short Introduction presents a succinct guide to the key episodes in that story - from the very origins of life four million years ago to the extraordinary diversity of species around the globe today. Beginning with an explanation of the controversies surrounding the birth of life itself, each following chapter tells of a major breakthrough that made new forms of life possible: including sex and mu...

This highly respected and best-selling textbook provides an accessible, engaging and comprehensive introduction to the major topics within physical geography. It focuses on understanding the inter-linkages between processes, places and environments and is comprehensively illustrated to demonstrate how the physical environment works.Now in its fourth edition, the book has been thoroughly updated throughout to contain the latest research. Between them, the contributors have researche...

"[A] scholarly but accessible analysis . . . [explores] forces that led to 'The Great Dying'—and the rebound of life in its aftermath." — Gemma Tarlach, Discover magazineTwo hundred sixty million years ago, life on Earth suffered wave after wave of cataclysmic extinctions, with the worst wiping out nearly every species on the planet. The Worst of Times delves into the mystery behind these extin...