San Antonio College Library

"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...

260 million years ago, life on Earth suffered wave after wave of cataclysmic extinctions, with the worst--the end-Permian extinction--wiping out nearly every species on the planet. This book delves into the mystery behind these extinctions and sheds light on the fateful role the primeval supercontinent, known as Pangea, may have played in causing these global catastrophes. Drawing on the latest discoveries as well as his own field expeditions to remote...

Presents several theories on the possible existence of a small, dim star, "Nemesis," that causes comet showers in our solar system every 26 million years.

What would happen if people disappeared from Earth? This program considers the fate Washington and Hollywood. We examine how America's national treasures will decay, zoo animals could escape and run wild, and how Los Angeles could burn uncontrollably and return to its original state. The program includes a look at the temples in Cambodia, which were abandoned 600 years ago.

Delving into the history of the planet and based on reports and interviews with scientists, a science writer--traveling to rain forests, canyons, craters, and caves all over the world to explore the potential winners and losers of the next era of evolution--describes what life on earth could look like after the next mass extinction.

"Science is not a democracy, and there is no room for political compromise," writes rankel in reference to the raging debate over what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. In one camp are the catastrophists, led by the discoveries of Walter and Louis Alvarez, who believe that a meteor impact was the cause; in the opposite corner, led by Courtillot (geophysics, Univ. of Paris), are the gradualists, who believe that dinosaur extinction was caused...

Paleobiologist Anthony D. Barnosky weaves together evidence from the deep past and the present to alert us to the looming Sixth Mass Extinction and to offer a practical, hopeful plan for avoiding it. Writing from the front lines of extinction research, Barnosky tells the overarching story of geologic and evolutionary history and how it informs the way humans inhabit, exploit, and impact Earth today. He presents compelling evidence that unless we rethink...

"As new groundbreaking research suggests that climate change played a major role in the most extreme catastrophes in the planet's history, award-winning science journalist Peter Brannen takes us on a wild ride through the planet's five mass extinctions and, in the process, offers us a glimpse of our increasingly dangerous future"--Publisher's website. "A vivid tour of Earth's Big Five mass extinctions, the past worlds lost with each, and what they...