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“The focus is the most severe mass extinction known in earth’s history. The science on which the book is based is up-to-date, thorough, and balanced. Highly recommended.” ―Choice
Today it is common knowledge that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteorite impact 65 million years ago that killed half of all species then living. It is far less widely understood that a much greater catastrophe took place at the end of the Permian period 251 million years ago: at least ninety percent of life on earth was destroyed.When Life Nearly Died documents not only what happened during this gigantic mass extinction but also the recent renewal of the idea of catastrophism: the theory that changes in the earth’s crust were brought about suddenly in the past by phenomena that cannot be observed today. Was the end-Permian event caused by the impact of a huge meteorite or comet, or by prolonged volcanic eruption in Siberia? The evidence has been accumulating, and Michael J. Benton gives his verdict at the end of the volume.
The new edition brings the study of the greatest mass extinction of all time thoroughly up-to-date. In the twelve years since the book was originally published, hundreds of geologists and paleontologists have been investigating all aspects of how life could be driven to the brink of annihilation, and especially how life recovered afterwards, providing the foundations of modern ecosystems. 48 illustrations
- Sales Rank: #235875 in Books
- Published on: 2015-08-11
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.30" h x 1.40" w x 6.20" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 352 pages
Review
'A great tale, beautifully told' - Niles Eldredge, American Museum of Natural History, author of Reinventing Darwin, Life in the Balance and Triumph of Evolution. 'Michael Benton's splendid book brings back to Earth Science a sense of adventure... It is both a wonderfully good read and a valued reference' - James Lovelock, author of Gaia and Homage to Gaia
About the Author
Michael J. Benton is Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol. His many previous books include standard reference works, textbooks, and popular books on dinosaurs and the history of life.
Most helpful customer reviews
126 of 129 people found the following review helpful.
superb overview of the Permian extinction event
By Atheen
Michael J. Benton's text, When Life Nearly Died, is superb. The topic of the book is the end-Permian extinction, an event less known to the average reader but of far greater impact than that of the KT boundary extinction of the dinosaurs. Although not necessarily as emotively compelling or as dramatic as the latter, the Permian devastation left the planet with only 4-10% of its previous species. It was a bottleneck of major consequence for subsequent biodiversity.
I would recommend this volume to any general reader with an interest in paleontology and earth history. The book covers the early history of geology and especially the biographies and activities of those researchers who helped define the rock sequences which every student memorizes: Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary. He focuses particularly on those who clarified the facies of the Permian and Triassic and brought to light the fact that "something funny" was going on then.
Although no real background in geology is needed to comprehend the narrative, I suspect that most will find the first chapters more interesting than later ones. The author touches upon subjects like uniformitarianism and catastrophism and the disagreement between them and upon the scientific free-for-all that arises over new theories like the impact demise of the dinosaurs, making them quite clear for the average reader. He subsequently builds upon the basics he has provided to carry one through his thesis. Once he gets into the actual discussion about the causes of the Permian event, however, the discussion settles down to chemistry, especially atmospheric and oceanic chemistry: how they work, how they interact, and how they can go horribly wrong. This may be a little tougher going for some readers. For those expecting a definitive answer to what caused the extinction, they will be disappointed. While there are contenders aplenty, the author honestly admits that there is not yet a clear winner and the ultimate cause may be multifacited.
I was especially impressed by the author's ability to stay on track. He gave a good background discussion, added some information about his own contributions, discussed the theories currently entertained by the geological community and ended with a discussion about biodiversity and human impact on the environment. In short the book was about the Permian extinction with enough support material to help a non-professional reader understand it and was not a platform for an autobiographical ego trip. He also gave a very clear and unbiased account of other scientists' work and how their efforts fit into the whole picture. In short he gave credit where credit was due.
A superb overview of the Permian extinction
50 of 50 people found the following review helpful.
A great long overdue book on the Permian mass extinction
By John Kwok
Distinguished vertebrate paleontologist Michael J. Benton's latest book, "When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction Of All Time", is a long overdue popular account of the worst mass extinction in Earth's history, the end Permian extinction of approximately 251 million years ago. Other customers have complained that this book only devotes less than a quarter of its text to the Permian extinction. However, Benton does an elegant job describing the rise of a uniformitarian view of geology in the 19th Century (One major omission is not citing Scottish geologist James Hutton, who can be regarded correctly as Charles Lyell's intellectual precursor with respect to uniformitarianism.) which was eloquent expressed and defended by Charles Lyell in "Principles of Geology", his influential text on geology which helped shaped the careers of other distinguished scientists, most notably Charles Darwin. Next Benton gives a mesmerizing account of the career of Scottish geologist Roderick Murchison, who coined the name Permian for a suite of rocks found in the Ural Mountains of Russia. These lengthy digressions are important - and will become apparent to the astute reader - once Benton describes the Permian mass extinction.
The second third of the book discusses the nature of mass extinctions, describing why paleontologists were inclined originally to think of mass extinctions as the result of apparent bias in sampling of the fossil record, not as real events denoting substantial loss of the Earth's biodiversity. Benton devotes much space to discussing possible scenarios for the end Cretaceous mass extinction, noting that that the asteroid impact theory proposed by Luis Alvarez, his son Walter, and their colleagues at Berkeley is the one accepted now by scientists. And he notes how ecosystems recover following a mass extinction, noting some of the important work done by ecologists and paleontologists in their analyses of recent ecological data as well as the fossil record.
In the final chapters Benton describes what he thinks did happen at the end Permian mass extinction, offering a plausible scenario for this event (However, he dismisses a probable impact scenario which may be more likely in light of current understanding of planetary impacts, most notably the work done by the Alvarez team and others for the terminal Cretaceous impact.). And he gives a thorough overview of man's negative impact on current biodiversity, noting that this could be yet another important extinction in Earth's history. Students of paleontology, historians of science and the general public will find this fine book a splendid overview of mass extinctions, especially the Permian extinction. It is one of the best recent books on the history of geology and paleontology that I have come across lately.
38 of 38 people found the following review helpful.
A superb review of the science of extinction of species
By Jerald R Lovell
Dr. Michael Benton, an eminent vertebrate paleontologist, has authored many books on the subject. This is one of his finest.
In this book, Dr. Benton addresses the multiple quandaries underlying mass extinctions, and ever-continuing, sometimes controversial, even acrimonious, effort to solve them. As per his high standards, Dr. Benton's text is highly readable, even though complex problems are being analyzed. He introduces the reader to alien or new concepts capably, and the text forms a seamless web along which any reader having a limited exposure to scientific disciplines may proceed without strenuous effort.
NOTE: Although the book's title appears to indicate a rather exclusive discussion about the largest mass extinction, the Permian-Triassic event, which ended the Paleozoic Era and ushered in the Mesozoic, the actual scope of the book is more broad. This is a pleasant, and very helpful, surprise.
Dr. Benton begins with the discovery of dinosaurs, and the history of the mapping of Europe's stratigraphy, before moving into the area of mass extinctions. Without this preliminary discussion, it would be far more difficult to understand how the concept and science of these events developed. I view this as a positive aspect of the book, since the concept of catastrophic events affecting the course of life's progress was most difficult for pioneers in the field to accept. The text admirably demonstrates that science is, after all, a human endeavor, complete with feuds, rivalries, and disputes. Indeed, much scientific progress has been achieved via disagreements and attempt to disprove the opponent's theories. I recommend this discussion to the students of ANY scientific discipline, not just paleontology.
The book moves to an examination of the five largest mass extinction events, with special emphasis being placed on the Mesozoic-ending extinction of the dinosaurs and the Permian-Triassic event. Smaller events are also addressed, such as the loss of species at the end of the Eocene epoch in our era. Dr.
Benton observes that the very large extinction episode at the end of the Cretaceous Period is almost universally accepted to have been the result of a colossal asteroid collision. He very properly notes that as one moves backward in time, the problem of causation of extictions becomes much more difficult to solve owing to plate movements, erosion and sedimentation, and diminution of appropriate outcrops of rocks.
Addressing the book's titled subject, Dr. Benton reviews the various claims that have been advanced for the cause of this "Mother of Extinctions". These include another huge collision with an extraterrestrial body, great climate change, enormous volcanic eruptions in what is now Siberia, a gigantic release of methyl hydrate gases in the oceans, a large drop in oceanic water levels, the uniting of all land masses into a single continent, the explosion of a nearby supernova, and on and on. Though he is taken to task by some reviewers, Dr. Benton reaches no categorical conclusion as to which of these events, singly or in combintion, offers the best explanation of the wiping out of over 90% of Earth's species of life. His best guess, phrased largely as such, is that the removal of so many lifeforms was a combination of large volcanic eruptions, only one land mass, and the freeing of enormous amount of carbon dioxide into Earth's atmosphere by the breakdown of methane hydrates in the oceans of that time.
NOTE: This writer disagrees, preferring the theory that an enormous impact event in the Falkland Island Basin caused antipodal supervolcnic Siberian lava flows, and that the combination of these two events almost destroyed the Earth's atmosphere, and its life. But am I right, or is the far more qualified Dr. Benton right? Or are we both wrong? The answer awaits further data and analysis of it. And coming full circle, this how the body of scientific knowledge grows.
In closing, this is one of the very best books I have ever read on science and its processes of growth. I recommend this book to one and all, and very, very highly. It is a true feast for the mind.
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