The miner's canary : unraveling the mysteries of extinction
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The miner's canary : unraveling the mysteries of extinction
（Princeton science library）
Princeton University Press, 1994
- : pbk
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Note
Originally published: New York : Prentice Hall Press, c1991
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Like the bird whose death signaled dangerous conditions in a mine, the demise of animals that once flourished should give humans pause. How is our fate linked to the earth's creatures, and the cycle of flourishing and extinction? Which are the simple workings of nature's order, and which are omens of ecological disaster? Does human activity accelerate extinction? What really causes it? In an illuminating and elegantly written account of the widespread reduction of the world's wildlife, renowned paleontologist Niles Eldredge poses these questions and examines humankind's role in the larger life cycles of the earth, composing a provocative general theory of extinction.
Table of Contents
Geologic Time ChartPrologueCh. 1Extinctions Are for Real1Ch. 2Santa Rosalia, or Why Are There So Many Kinds of Living Things?21Ch. 3Biotic Armageddon: Deja Vu Over and Over Again49Ch. 4Patterns and Clues in Paleozoic Mass Extinctions79Ch. 5Extinction, and the Rise and Vicissitudes of Modern Life99Ch. 6Without a Helping Hand: Causes of Mass Extinctions in the Geological Past131Ch. 7The Ice Man Cometh: Climate Change, Human Action, and the Great Pleistocene Extinctions171Ch. 8The Canary's Song: Land Use, Habitat Reduction, and Extinction209Annotated Bibliography and Suggested Readings231Index237
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