پایان تکامل: درباره انقراض‌های جمعی و حفظ تنوع زیستی

A paleontologist and author of On Methuselah's Trail draws on present-day research and the fossil record to recreate prehistoric life and to search for clues to the catastrophic mass extinctions that have transformed the evolution of life. The Crystal-clear Waters Of The Philippine Archipelago, Eerily Empty Of Sea Life ... A Lush Hawaiian Paradise Now The Scene Of Devastating Depopulation And Extinction ... The Mighty Columbia River, Stripped Of Its Once Abundant Salmon, Now An Empty Series Of Damned Lakes ... Wolves, At One Time Numbering More Than 2 Million In The Continental United States, Now Dwindled To Perhaps 2,000. Twice In The Distant Past, Catastrophic Extinctions Have Swept The Earth, Causing The 'end' Of Evolution For Certain Creatures And The Beginning For Others. The First Occurred 250 Million Years Ago And Marked The Destruction Of 90 Percent Of All Living Creatures - And The Survival Of Our First Mammalian Ancestors. The Second Great Mass Extinction Took Place 65 Million Years Ago And 50 Percent Of All Species - Including The Last Of The Dinosaurs - Perished In A Cataclysm That May Have Been Caused In Part By The Earth's Collision With An Asteroid. Now Peter Ward, On A Journey That Traverses Continents And Travels Into The Past, Searches For The Clues To These Disastrous Events. His Reason Is Urgent And Chilling, For Ward And Many Other Prominent Scientists Have Documented Signs That A Third Mass Extinction Has Already Begun On Our Planet. Could Its Primary Cause Reach Back Just 100,000 Years, When The Earth Felt The Impact Of Another Wandering, Potentially Destructive Force, A New 'asteroid' Called Homo Sapiens? Ward's Journey Progresses From Fossil Hunting In Africa To Following A Dinosaur Trail In Hell Creek, Montana, And Finally To Climbing High In The Remote Caucasus Mountains Of Soviet Georgia To See If Its Thick White Limestone Holds Evidence Of A Long-ago Planetary Destruction. At Each Stop Along The Way, Ward Documents The Rich Diversity Of Life Now Endangered By Changes In Climate And The World's Burgeoning Population. In This Rich, Accessible Book Ward Gives Us Reason To Marvel And Mourn, Fear And Hope - And Clearly Demonstrates The Urgency Of The Need To Preserve Life As We Know It Before Our Time Runs Out--book Jkt. The First Event : The Cape -- The Great Karroo -- End Of An Era -- Dawn Of The Mesozoic -- The Age Of Dinosaurs -- Death Of The Dinosaurs -- Autumn -- Winter -- Overkill -- Lost Islands -- Numbers -- Hope. Peter Ward. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 281-289) And Index. In the tradition of E.O. Wilson's eloquent The Diversity of Life , the author of the award-winning On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions recreates the dramatic history of life and its great extinctions and issues a compelling call to act to preserve our world's biodiversity. Cover 1 Contents 8 Introduction 10 1 The Cape 20 2 The Great Karroo 48 3 End of an Era 81 4 Dawn of the Meszoic 108 5 The Age of Dinosaurs 124 6 Death of the Dinosaurs 139 7 Autumn 180 8 Winter 194 9 Overkill 211 10 Lost Islands 230 11 Numbers 262 12 Hope 290 Notes 298 Index 308