Extinctions in Near Time

Extinctions in Near Time PDF Author: Ross D.E. MacPhee
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1475752024
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
"Near time" -an interval that spans the last 100,000 years or so of earth history-qualifies as a remarkable period for many reasons. From an anthropocentric point of view, the out standing feature of near time is the fact that the evolution, cultural diversification, and glob al spread of Homo sapiens have all occurred within it. From a wider biological perspective, however, the hallmark of near time is better conceived of as being one of enduring, repeat ed loss. The point is important. Despite the sense of uniqueness implicit in phrases like "the biodiversity crisis," meant to convey the notion that the present bout of extinctions is by far the worst endured in recent times, substantial losses have occurred throughout near time. In the majority of cases, these losses occurred when, and only when, people began to ex pand across areas that had never before experienced their presence. Although the explana tion for these correlations in time and space may seem obvious, it is one thing to rhetori cally observe that there is a connection between humans and recent extinctions, and quite another to demonstrate it scientifically. How should this be done? Traditionally, the study of past extinctions has fallen largely to researchers steeped in such disciplines as paleontology, systematics, and paleoecology. The evaluation of future losses, by contrast, has lain almost exclusively within the domain of conservation biolo gists. Now, more than ever, there is opportunity for overlap and sharing of information.

Extinctions in Near Time

Extinctions in Near Time PDF Author: Ross D.E. MacPhee
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1475752024
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402

Get Book

Book Description
"Near time" -an interval that spans the last 100,000 years or so of earth history-qualifies as a remarkable period for many reasons. From an anthropocentric point of view, the out standing feature of near time is the fact that the evolution, cultural diversification, and glob al spread of Homo sapiens have all occurred within it. From a wider biological perspective, however, the hallmark of near time is better conceived of as being one of enduring, repeat ed loss. The point is important. Despite the sense of uniqueness implicit in phrases like "the biodiversity crisis," meant to convey the notion that the present bout of extinctions is by far the worst endured in recent times, substantial losses have occurred throughout near time. In the majority of cases, these losses occurred when, and only when, people began to ex pand across areas that had never before experienced their presence. Although the explana tion for these correlations in time and space may seem obvious, it is one thing to rhetori cally observe that there is a connection between humans and recent extinctions, and quite another to demonstrate it scientifically. How should this be done? Traditionally, the study of past extinctions has fallen largely to researchers steeped in such disciplines as paleontology, systematics, and paleoecology. The evaluation of future losses, by contrast, has lain almost exclusively within the domain of conservation biolo gists. Now, more than ever, there is opportunity for overlap and sharing of information.

Extinctions in Near Time

Extinctions in Near Time PDF Author: Ross D. E. MacPhee
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781475752038
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description


The Sixth Extinction

The Sixth Extinction PDF Author: Elizabeth Kolbert
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781496189882
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
WARNING: This is not the actual book The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. Do not buy this Summary, Review & Analysis if you are looking for a full copy of this great book.This summary of The Sixth Extinction drills deep down into the book, which travels to exotic locations around the world to illustrate case studies of an endangered planet (think of it as a "1000 places to see before the world dies"). In chapter synopses, speculate on different scenarios that could lead to an earth-altering cataclysm. Visit a frozen zoo, where the cells of a 1,000 species have been served a liquid nitrogen cocktail. Find hope as you learn how "the most important ecological experiment ever done" is currently underway in the Amazon rainforest. In addition to an author biography, this summary of The Sixth Extinction includes a "putting it together" section: a helping hand for understanding Kolbert's big ideas.It's hard to believe that the sum total of all human civilization will one day be compressed into a rock layer the width of a piece of paper, but in The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert gives the reader an expansive overview of how Mother Earth is getting ready to clean house – again. This time, it's not just the mastodon bones being thrown out with the trash. An exploration of how humans are heading for mass extinction largely due to their own follies, The Sixth Extinction compresses anecdotes, evidence, and scientific characters into a sometimes-humorous tome of an otherwise serious topic.

The Argonautika

The Argonautika PDF Author: Apollonios Rhodios
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520253933
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 792

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Book Description
"Green turns his formidable classical learning and his finely nuanced sense of English verse to bear on the challenge of restoring Apollonios to his true place—on a par with the best modern poetic versions of Homer and Virgil."—Robert Fagles

American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene

American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene PDF Author: Gary Haynes
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402087934
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
The volume contains summaries of facts, theories, and unsolved problems pertaining to the unexplained extinction of dozens of genera of mostly large terrestrial mammals, which occurred ca. 13,000 calendar years ago in North America and about 1,000 years later in South America. Another equally mysterious wave of extinctions affected large Caribbean islands around 5,000 years ago. The coupling of these extinctions with the earliest appearance of human beings has led to the suggestion that foraging humans are to blame, although major climatic shifts were also taking place in the Americas during some of the extinctions. The last published volume with similar (but not identical) themes -- Extinctions in Near Time -- appeared in 1999; since then a great deal of innovative, exciting new research has been done but has not yet been compiled and summarized. Different chapters in this volume provide in-depth resumés of the chronology of the extinctions in North and South America, the possible insights into animal ecology provided by studies of stable isotopes and anatomical/physiological characteristics such as growth increments in mammoth and mastodont tusks, the clues from taphonomic research about large-mammal biology, the applications of dating methods to the extinctions debate, and archeological controversies concerning human hunting of large mammals.

Holocene Extinctions

Holocene Extinctions PDF Author: Samuel T. Turvey
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019157998X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
The extent to which human activity has influenced species extinctions during the recent prehistoric past remains controversial due to other factors such as climatic fluctuations and a general lack of data. However, the Holocene (the geological interval spanning the last 11,500 years from the end of the last glaciation) has witnessed massive levels of extinctions that have continued into the modern historical era, but in a context of only relatively minor climatic fluctuations. This makes a detailed consideration of these extinctions a useful system for investigating the impacts of human activity over time. Holocene Extinctions describes and analyses the range of global extinction events which have occurred during this key time period, as well as their relationship to both earlier and ongoing species losses. By integrating information from fields as diverse as zoology, ecology, palaeontology, archaeology and geography, and by incorporating data from a broad range of taxonomic groups and ecosystems, this novel text provides a fascinating insight into human impacts on global extinction rates, both past and present. This truly interdisciplinary book is suitable for both graduate students and researchers in these varied fields. It will also be of value and use to policy-makers and conservation professionals since it provides valuable guidance on how to apply lessons from the past to prevent future biodiversity loss and inform modern conservation planning.

Nearshore Marine Paleoclimatic Regions, Increasing Zoogeographic Provinciality, Molluscan Extinctions, and Paleoshorelines, California

Nearshore Marine Paleoclimatic Regions, Increasing Zoogeographic Provinciality, Molluscan Extinctions, and Paleoshorelines, California PDF Author: Clarence A. Hall
Publisher: Geological Society of America
ISBN: 9780813723570
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description
Approximately 3000 middle and late Cenozoic nearshore marine molluscan taxa from western California are assigned to six time periods, spanning ~25 m.y. In this interdisciplinary study, western California is palinspastically restored for each of the time periods by backsliding and back-rotating large fault blocks or crustal units. Marine fossil assemblages are assigned to nearshore paleoclimatic regions or water masses within palinspastically restored California. In addition, this volume reveals positive feedback mechanisms between paleolatitudinal changes in sea-surface paleotemperature gradients and changes in the diversity of marine mollusks along the California coast through time; defines "equable" based effective temperatures; and analyzes extinction rates among macroinvertebrate marine taxa from coastal California and the possible causes of these extinctions. The late Paleogene to Neogene faunas reflect an increase in faunal diversity related to strengthened temperature gradients, greater extremes in sea-surface temperatures, reduction in temperateness, and the development of an embayed California coastline.

The Sixth Extinction

The Sixth Extinction PDF Author: Elizabeth Kolbert
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789385436024
Category : Environmental disasters
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. But this time around, the cataclysm is us ... In The Sixth Extinction, two-time National Magazine award winner and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in a half-dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the Great Auk and the Sumatran rhino ... Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as a concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in French Revolutionary Paris through to the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World's Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals

End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World's Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals PDF Author: Ross D E MacPhee
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393249301
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
The fascinating lives and puzzling demise of some of the largest animals on earth. Until a few thousand years ago, creatures that could have been from a sci-fi thriller—including gorilla-sized lemurs, 500-pound birds, and crocodiles that weighed a ton or more—roamed the earth. These great beasts, or “megafauna,” lived on every habitable continent and on many islands. With a handful of exceptions, all are now gone. What caused the disappearance of these prehistoric behemoths? No one event can be pinpointed as a specific cause, but several factors may have played a role. Paleomammalogist Ross D. E. MacPhee explores them all, examining the leading extinction theories, weighing the evidence, and presenting his own conclusions. He shows how theories of human overhunting and catastrophic climate change fail to account for critical features of these extinctions, and how new thinking is needed to elucidate these mysterious losses. Along the way, we learn how time is determined in earth history; how DNA is used to explain the genomics and phylogenetic history of megafauna—and how synthetic biology and genetic engineering may be able to reintroduce these giants of the past. Until then, gorgeous four-color illustrations by Peter Schouten re-create these megabeasts here in vivid detail.

Quaternary Extinctions

Quaternary Extinctions PDF Author: Paul S. Martin
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 9780816511006
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 904

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Book Description
What caused the extinction of so many animals at or near the end of the Pleistocene? Was it overkill by human hunters, the result of a major climatic change or was it just a part of some massive evolutionary turnover? Questions such as these have plagued scientists for over one hundred years and are still being heatedly debated today. Quaternary Extinctions presents the latest and most comprehensive examination of these questions. ÑGeological Magazine "May be regarded as a kind of standard encyclopedia for Pleistocene vertebrate paleontology for years to come." ÑAmerican Scientist "Should be read by paleobiologists, biologists, wildlife managers, ecologists, archeologists, and anyone concerned about the ongoing extinction of plants and animals." ÑScience "Uncommonly readable and varied for watchers of paleontology and the rise of humankind." ÑScientific American "Represents a quantum leap in our knowledge of Pleistocene and Holocene palaeobiology. . . . Many volumes on our bookshelves are destined to gather dust rather than attention. But not this one." ÑNature "Two strong impressions prevail when first looking into this epic compendium. One is the judicious balance of views that range over the whole continuum between monocausal, cultural, or environmental explanations. The second is that both the data base and theoretical sophistication of the protagonists in the debate have improved by a quantum leap since 1967." ÑAmerican Anthropologist