Several times in the distant past, catastrophic extinctions have swept the Earth, causing more than half of all species--from single-celled organisms to awe-inspiring behemoths--to suddenly vanish and be replaced by new life forms. Today the rich diversity of life on the Earth is again in grave danger--and the cause is not a sudden cataclysmic event but rather humankind's devastation of the environment. Is life on our planet teetering on the brink of another mass extinction? In this absorbing new book, acclaimed paleontologist Peter D. Ward answers this daunting question with a resounding...

Several times in the distant past, catastrophic extinctions have swept the Earth, causing more than half of all species--from single-celled organisms to awe-inspiring behemoths--to suddenly vanish and be replaced by new life forms. Today the rich diversity of life on the Earth is again in grave danger--and the cause is not a sudden cataclysmic event but rather humankind's devastation of the environment. Is life on our planet teetering on the brink of another mass extinction? In this absorbing new book, acclaimed paleontologist Peter D. Ward answers this daunting question with a resounding...

I n modem times, science has brought the past-and so many of its creatures-back to life via intellectual inquiry, application of the scientific method, and some extraordinary technology that has recently been devel- oped. The wonder of the process is that such a rich and vivid understanding of the deep past has been generated from such scanty evidence: broken bones, lithified shells, fossil leaves, and even simple layered rocks. The sci- entists who have contributed to this work have woven rich tapestries of an- cient times, and their weaving, which is an adventure in itself, is the subject...