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Sixty-five million years ago the dinosaurs
were destroyed in a mass extinction that could not have
been predicted. Out of the devastation, new life developed
and the world regained its natural equilibrium. Until now.
Scientists, employing radically new perspectives on the
science of life, are beginning to uncover signs of a similar
event on the horizon. The end of man.
Through the story of the last sixty-five
million years, Michael Boulter reveals extraordinary new
insights scientists are only now beginning to understand
about the past, the rise and fall of species and the nature
of life. Does evolution follow a pattern? Does biology follow
mathematical principles? Is the environment a self-organising
system that seeks harmony through extinction? Are humans,
through their own selfishness, accelerating their own end?
Extinction is an immaculately researched
introduction into the new developments in the science of
life as well as a chilling account of the effects that humans
have had on the planet. The world will adapt and survive
-- humanity will not.
Michael Boulter is the Professor of Palaeobiology
at the University of East London. He is the head of a team
analysing Fossil Record 2, the largest database of information
on extinct animals and plants. He has written numerous articles
on how we understand evolutionary change. For twenty years
he has been Secretary and Editor for the International Organisation
of Palaeobiology. He lives with his family in North London.
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