When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time

by Michael J. Benton

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. Far less well-known is a much greater catastrophe that took place at the end of the Permian period 251 million years ago: 90 percent of life was destroyed, including saber-toothed reptiles and their rhinoceros-sized prey on land, as well as vast numbers of fish and other species in the sea.

This book documents not only what happened during this gigantic mass extinction but also the recent rekindling of the idea of catastrophism. 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 through the 1990s and into the new millennium, and Michael Benton gives his verdict at the very end. From field camps in Greenland and Russia to the laboratory bench, When Life Nearly Died involves geologists, paleontologists, environmental modelers, geochemists, astronomers, and experts on biodiversity and conservation. Their working methods are vividly described and explained, and the current disputes are revealed. The implications of our understanding of crises in the past for the current biodiversity crisis are also presented in detail. 46 b/w illustrations.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Palaeontology, Biology, Geology, Evolution

336 pages, Paperback

First published March 10, 2003

About the author

Michael J. Benton FRS is Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol. He is particularly interested in early reptiles, Triassic dinosaurs, and macroevolution, and has published over 50 books and 300 scientific articles. He leads one of the most successful palaeontology research groups at the University of Bristol, and has supervised over 60 PhD students.

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

For all that this purports to be about the end-Permian extinction — the greatest of the extinction events, where maybe 90% of living organisms were wiped out — this actually contains a lot more information about the end-Cretaceous. This makes some sense, because we have a much better understanding of what caused the end-Cretaceous extinction, and it helps that it’s also the most widely known and understood. People don’t really want to hear about the extinctions in the Permian, however much more disastrous, because the image of the extinction of the dinosaurs is so entrenched in our minds.

But I kind of did want to know about the end-Permian extinction, and I wasn’t so interested in chapters and chapters of set up, particularly when it came to the history of catastrophism. It’s enough that I grasp the concepts, and that they haven’t always been agreed upon or understood the way they are now — I don’t really want to know the personal details of loads of scientists’ lives. (Some are interesting characters in themselves. Some are not. Either way, I’m actually here for the end-Permian, not upheavals in Earth sciences.)

I was a bit staggered by a couple of assertions — “all organisms have DNA”, for example, including “the simplest virus”. But no: a virus contains RNA. It’s quite an important distinction, and shouldn’t have slipped past editors, particularly when the book does touch on heredity and descent. And then there was the rather bizarre idea that the Marie Celeste’s crew were struck by a burp of gas which killed them, made their bodies disappear, and left the ship itself untouched. Hm.

Mostly it seems reasonably solid, but bits like that made me raise my eyebrows a bit.

[Lili Kyurkchiyska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Предполагам, че всички сте чували за астероида, затрил динозаврите.
А дали сте чували за геолижкия период Перм?
И аз не бях чувала, докато не започнах да работя в книжарница. Там отговарях, между другото, за стилажа на Schleich - немска фирма, произвеждаща ръчно рисувани фигурки, доста популярни сред децата. И се запознах със съществото, наречено Dimetrodon - представител на род месоядни синапсиди (които се водят нещо като протобозайници; приличат на влечуги, но не са!), с характерно ветрило на гърба си. Както и една страховита бронирана риба Dunkleosteus с костни плочи, вместо зъби, която обаче се оказа, че е живяла около стотина милиона години по-рано, в периода Девон. Както и да е - трябваше да разбера що е това Перм и кога да го датирам.
Та, Пермът (298-251 млн години) е последният период от Палеозойската ера, онази преди Мезозойската, когато са живяли динозаврите (повтаряйте след мен: Триас, Юра, Креда; Триас, Юра, Креда). Само че Пермът е малко по-особен... или по-точно краят му. Защото тогава се случва нещо, което унищожава около 90 % от съществуващите видове. За сравнение, астероидът е постигнал това само с 50 % от тях. От петте големи масови измирания това е най-ГОЛЯМОТО и то поставя множество неудобни въпроси за онова шестото, което вече тече.
Книгата на Майкъл Бентън представлява находчиво и достъпно въведение в историята и методите на геологията и палеонтологията. Тя ни запознава с проблема за масовите измирания като цяло и дългия път, изминат от учените, докато потвърдят (за себе си) съществуването на това явление.

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Michael J. Benton does indeed sometimes tend to repeat himself a bit in his When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time, I have both personally and academically, intellectually found those very same repetitions in fact often quite necessary and required for understanding the presented, the featured concepts and for focussing (or sometimes refocusing) my attention on the essentials (like the main geologic, atmospheric phenomena and conditions which likely were the main reasons for the Late Permian mass extinction event, and yes, on how immensely devastating this all was, that indeed, at the boundary of the Permian and the Triassic eras, life itself was very nearly completely, utterly wiped out both on land and in the oceans). And albeit that I was prior to my perusal of When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time already well aware that the Late Permian extinctions do actually make the so-called K-T boundary event that wiped out the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous era seem pretty well like small potatoes in comparison, I have absolutely both appreciated and enjoyed my reading time, I have most definitely learned very much from When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time and indeed all in a manner that is readable and easy to understand even for someone like me without college or university degrees in the life sciences.

Furthermore and fortunately, appreciatively, I also have been rather ecstatic that unlike Donald J. Prothero who tends in his books on fossils and evolution to often present just a trifle too much authorial arrogance with occasional even outbursts of anger, as well as frustrating name dropping of one palaeontologist of the past after another (which I for one find rather tedious and monotonous as it kind of tends to read like a laundry list), Michael J. Benton has instead penned with When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time an enlightening, humble, readable, and straight forward account of the greatest mass extinction event thus far and what might have caused this, an absolute and enlightening personal reading joy (light but very much educational, enlightening hard core science and palaeontology fare that is readily and easily digestible and made even more so with the inclusion of a detailed explanatory glossary at the back, endnotes and of course also a very thorough and up-to date bibliography).

[Lois Bujold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good, but suffered from being read right on the heels of the weightier and somewhat more literary Annals of the Former World. 12 chapters, of which 10 were history of the development of palaeontology as a science and other peripheral or contextual matters, and about 2 on the Permian and its end. I did not wish for less of the other material, but I would have liked more about the Permian-etc. The whole Life Before Dinosaurs scene is worth something large with color illustrations, although this tried its best to convey the deep weirdness of the fauna with nicely clear line drawings. The illos and charts included were well designed and very useful.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it when I find out a great mystery is solved, especially something that is near and dear to my heart. I am a geologist which means I live and breathe rocks for a living, and yet this was a topic I virtually knew nothing about.
One of the things that irked me during University was that it was recognized that the Permian extinction was the greatest ever the Earth had ever seen, but the reasons why and what caused it were never mentioned. The cause of the dinosaur extinction, on the other hand was well known and we covered it in detail. I wondered why so little was known for an event that was so earthshattering.
Simply put, the biggest reason that I knew nothing about the cause was that intensive research was going on regarding the Permian - Triassic event while I was still in University. This blew me away. Here we have one of the most shocking events in the Earth's history (the Cambrian explosion of life comes first for me) and it is only in the past couple of decades that earth scientists have really began to tackle in detail. Secondly, catastrophic events in the geological record became more accepted once it was recognized that a meteorite impact had a significant effect on life such as the extinction of dinosaurs. The author carefully puts together all the known facts and comes up with the most plausible cause of this massive extinction that wiped out 90% of all life on land and sea. Basically, it was a combination of very intensive volcanism and liberation of deep sea gas hydrates. Together, that caused a runaway greenhouse gas effect (temperatures rose 6 degrees!), massive amounts of acid rain which lowered the worldwide oxygen levels in a very short time span.

Here are some facts that I didn't know before:
No reefs or coal seams were evident for 10 million years after the Permian -Triassic event which means plant life and marine ecosystems were STILL struggling to re establish themselves.
It took 100 million years for the marine life to be as diverse and populated as the late Permian times. This is astonishing given how life in general is resilient to catastrophes in the past.
The reptiles that would eventually give rise to mammals were dominant in the Permian, only to barely squeak through. They did survive but never dominated during the Mesozoic Era (Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous). The other group of reptiles that survived and would eventually give rise to dinosaurs flourished after the extinction and dominated the Mesozoic era only to barely make it through the next big extinction event. The descendants of the once dominant Permian reptiles, mammals are now the dominant species. The cycle has come a full circle.

It is rare for a geology book to be so insightful, focused and yet written in a way that a person with little knowledge of geology could understand it. Highly recommended for those who want to know more about extinctions, palaeontology and evolution.

[Mark Hartzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a lot the 1st time I read it back in around 2002, so going back again was a pleasure. While the KT extinction event (the end of the dinosaurs) is now well known, the much larger extinction event of 251 million years ago is not nearly as well known. Benton covers a lot of ground, and I think persuasively points out the likely causes of when "life nearly died".

This is pretty technical sometimes, but not overwhelmingly so. Highly readable, yet not patronizing to the casual lay scientist. I think more time could have been spent discussing the causes of the Siberian Traps and traps in general. This is not common knowledge and it would have been helpful to get a better understanding. But all in all, a good overview.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great long overdue book on the Permian mass extinction

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.

(Reposted from my 2004 Amazon review)

[Elentarri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a nicely written book that investigates the Permian mass extinction event approximately 250 million years ago that wiped out 90% of all species on Planet Earth. The author starts with the history of geology and paleontology, and describes the various historical means of approaching geological problems. The author also takes a look at the Cretaceous mass extinction which killed the dinosaurs. This is an up-to-date (2015) edition of the book that includes new information on what caused the Permian mass extinction and how life recovered afterwards. There is a fair amount of technical terminology at the beginning of the book, but this doesn't detract from the beautiful writing and fascinating information.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a read. It's a little slow and dithering to start off, but once it gets rolling it's a fantastic read - almost a page turner. I do think it spends a little too long on the Cretaceous/Tertiary extinction event, but then I guess that is the most popular, so a good place to start for a non-scientific audience.

The theories and data surrounding the End Permian extinction event are thoroughly covered, with no agenda behind any one of them. The discussion is fantastic, and the final descriptions of the mass extinction event are stunning. Highly recommended and becoming increasingly relevant for our current biodiversity crisis.

[Dougal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book but it does have some quite severe limitations. Firstly, although it is clearly pitched at the general reader, unless he has a background knowledge of Earth Sciences he would often be left scratching his head. In the first chapters, possibly up to about half way, the book explains basic geological and evolutionary concepts in simple terms and then, as the book progresses, it skips through more complicated areas with little or no explanation at all. Secondly, the book is very light on diagrams that would help explain things. For example, there is a basic geological time chart early in the book that only shows Eras and Periods, but different Eons, Epochs and Stages are frequently referred to later in the text. Similarly, the changes in the cyconodonts, synapsids, dicynodonts etc across the Permian/Triassic boundary, as well as changes in many other taxa, are discussed in detail, but there are no cladograms to help get a handle on the interrelationship between them. For any reader, that would have been helpful. Thirdly, the book does rather give the impression of having been started carefully and then rushed through in the last third, with rather a lot of repetition.

Benton is a prolific author. Perhaps the drawbacks to the book are a reflection of the fact that it's unlikely he has much time to spend going back over his text to polish and improve. He is too busy with his next project!

Overall, the book is a very easy and enjoyable read for the Earth scientist and I would heartily recommend it. For the more general reader I would recommend the first half for the introduction to the subject of extinction, mass extinction in particular, and for the fascinating history of the subject from the early nineteenth century to the present.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly accessible and does a great job of laying the historical groundwork of the science itself before launhing into a fascinating and frightening discussion of a mass extinction event. HIGHLY recommended.

[Jonas Gehrlein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A historically based book about mass extinctions with quite compelling arguments for a perm-trias extinction based on gas hydrates and on how looking at extinctions in the past you can find out what will happen with the current extinction.
A bit tough to read but well worth it.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very excited to read about the infamous end-Permian extinction. Less excited when I found it was about some British geologists more than the actual science.

Pro tip for science writers- science is interesting, scientists are boring.

[Laura Madsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly focusing on the end-Permian mass extinction, but also includes interesting discussion on the history of geology/paleontology/catastrophism.

[Scot Fagerland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do about half of my research online, buying books when I want a more complete or detailed account than what is freely available. The Permian-Triassic (P-T) extinction was one of the most significant events in Earth's natural history, yet it is surprisingly difficult to find books on the subject. Benton is recognized as an authority on the P-T extinction, and this book is widely cited.

I found the book to be heavily "padded", and felt that it was baiting me as a reader. After introducing the P-T extinction in the prologue, Benton then essentially wrote an introduction that spanned 3/4 of the book. He discussed extinctions in general, devoting more time to the well-known K-Pg extinction than to the P-T. The main subject was really the history of catastrophism, the question of whether short-term events can have long-term impact. That discussion was more relevant to the K-Pg event, which was at least exacerbated by asteroid impacts. The P-T transition was a period of climate change that lasted millions or even tens of millions of years. I was already familiar with the topics through most of this book, so for me this material would have been more appropriate as a one-chapter introduction.

Chapter 11 finally got to the heart of the matter, "What happened?!" The most complete answer, a complex series of causes, effects, and feedback loops, was based on a model that had been published years earlier by a different scientist. However, Benton did a good job of funneling the academic literature into concise and readable language. He also resists the temptation to give an overly simplified answer, which impatient laymen so often expect. Compared to other accounts, I did feel that his discussion of methane hydrates was more conclusive than justified by current research.

Benton concluded with a timely epilogue, a comparison to current global warming.

In all fairness, the book's sales blurb does indicate, "'When Life Nearly Died' documents not only what happened during this gigantic mass extinction but also the recent renewal of the idea of catastrophism ... Benton gives his verdict at the end of the volume." I was expecting a book that was mostly about the Permian and Triassic periods, their flora and fauna, and the incredible evolutionary bottleneck between them. I would have been more satisfied if the book had been 75% P-T event and 25% backdrop, rather than the other way around.

On the other hand, I would highly recommend this book as an introduction to mass extinctions in general, or even the P-T and K-Pg together, which were arguably the two largest. It is not a monograph, but it does discuss solid evidence and does not just reach conclusions for the reader as some popular science books are wont to do.

[David Buccola · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a bit dry at times, but I really enjoyed the way Benton pulls back the curtain on Paleontology to explain how they come to these conclusions. As usual in science what is revealed is not quite the standard story we are told about how science is always pushing for the unvarnished truth. As in just about any scientific endeavor dogma is created and defended, much like in religion. Powerful, vested interests have jobs and reputations to defend and could care less about what the evidence shows. The big split here being between the Uniformists and the Catastrophists. Today we all know that the Catastrophists have won, but it's a recent victory. What's most interesting about that is that the evidence was always there. Paleontologists in the 19th Century who tried arguing that major catastrophes had happened in the past were dismissed as crazy.

Benton sees this all as a natural progression of science. I'm not so convinced. If anything it seems that scientists often do see what they want to see. I'm not arguing that science is devoid of value, but this book should stand as a cautionary tale for anyone that believes the now popular aphorism, "Science doesn't care what you believe." Science--instituional science--very much cares what certain people believe. If you have money, power, access to technology science is very much interested in what you believe. And this isn't just paleontology it can be found throughout the physical sciences; one can only imagine it's even worse in the softer sciences.

For this reader Benton's approach probably backfired. It's not that I don't believe dinosaurs were wiped out by a giant asteroid, but I do have to wonder if that's the whole story. Like many paleontologists today are arguing they were already on their way out for various reasons. Given the imperfect nature of the fossil record and the various methodologies employed across the globe, it seems far fetched to say we will ever know these things with any great certainty.

This is actually illustrated late in the book by Benton when he briefly discusses the Sixth Great Extinction. Like all scientists he's overly conservative. How can we know, he asks, exactly how many species really even exist right now? Which is weird given his much more confident pronouncement of how many species died during, say, the Extinction events 65 MYO and 252 MYO to just name two.

All of this is not to say this is a bad book. It's actually quite fascinating. And I think it should be read by anyone interested in science. But ultimately we need to be aware of the forces that shape scientific opinion and how those forces often suppress the quest for truth.

[Esmeralda Rupp-Spangle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I went into this book already knowing that it was largely about the history of paleontology, rather than the Permian Extinction as the title implies, I was not disappointed by the content of the book when I read it.
The science has aged somewhat since this was written and more is known now than was at the time of publication, but it's still a fascinating historical overview, and the conclusions he draws are largely, though not entirely, correct. He leaves himself open for amendment though, and clearly knows that the full story had not emerged when he wrote this.

It was engaging, even funny at times to get a feel for how much petty sniping and dueling theories there are in geology and paleontology, and it's a good reminder that we don't always know what we think we know, and it's always best to be willing to adjust your perspective based on the availability of new evidence.
It's easy to become set and stagnant in your views, immovable and stubborn even given compelling evidence that refuted your beliefs. Scientific minds are not immune to this, as much as they would like to believe they are, and it's interesting to see the full scope of how minds and attitudes about mass extinctions, catastrophism, and other concepts have altered over time.
I especially enjoyed the latter portion of the book that covered the Permian extinction properly; the creatures that lived, those that did not, the environmental changes that may have occurred- I learned much more about geology than I thought I would as well!
Overall an excellent read.
Only docked a star for the "false advertising" of the title (because although I knew a lot of it was a historical overview, I didn't learn that until after I bought it- and that's not what it appears to be!), and for some very minor quibbles.

[Daniel Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book combines the science of (earth) history and the history of science. The book is essentially arranged backwards. In order to understand current theories about the Permian Extinction, we need to study the theories around the first scientifically-explained mass extinction at the end-Cretaceous. To talk about that, we need to explore the history of studying extinctions, how data and methods have developed, and above all the ideological constructs of science. This is why the book begins by exploring 19th century geology, and the conflict between catastrophism and uniformitarianism. The author convincingly demonstrates that the "triumph" of uniformitarianism led scientists to not notice evidence of mass extinctions well into the mid-2oth century.

That is the general outline of the book. The author does not get bogged down with the full history of science, but only that which is necessary to understand the intellectual frameworks around these scientific debates. What I especially appreciate is that the author examines all the theories and ideas around the K-T and the Permian extinctions. This gives us a full picture of what evidence was considered, what theories were proposed, and how and why certain theories and data were discredited. We get to see science in action, and along the way learn about the history of the planet and its ancient lifeforms. The author expertly weaves both natural science/scientific evidence as we now understand it as well as science as a social process/institution.

This is easily one of the best paleontology books I've ever read, and if you have ANY interest in ANYTHING paleontological, you should read this. I am putting Michael Benton second only to Stephen Jay Gould for the quality of scientific writing that is somehow both technical and accessible at the same time.

[Stephen Dedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A welcome reminder that there is more to paleontology than dinosaurs (though they haven't been forgotten), this excellent book focuses on the importance of geology in establishing the dates for the beginnings and ends of eras - and thus the 'time of death' in the biggest murder mysteries ever, the Great Extinctions that followed the Permian and Cretaceous. Partly a history of paleontology (with its fashions, politics and personalities), partly a primary on how geology and geochemistry teach us about the environmental conditions in any age, with some travelogue thrown in for good measure, the book looks at how the end-Cretaceous event was attributed to an asteroid impact before moving on to the question of what caused an even more catastrophic dying at the end of the Permian (an estimated 90% of both terrestrial and marine species, compared to 50%). Finally, Benton crunches the numbers to examine the probable sixth great extinction event happening now.
Benton is a very readable writer and an excellent explainer, able to define concepts as cladistics in one memorable line. Even more remarkably, he has not only helped me understand more about stratigraphy and something about geochemistry, he has made them fascinating.

[Richard Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

One would think that "page turner" and "Permian mass extinction" are mutually exclusive but one would be wrong. This is a fascinating book which, at the very least, will get you to schedule a trip to the nearest museum to view the fossils they have on display. What you will learn about fossils and the history of paleontology will make those "dead bones" come to life. The story of how paleontologists and other scientists who study the past came to understand the extinction events that have shaped life on this planet is told by someone who participated in many of the discoveries and debates and it is told well. The discussion and tying together of the different themes which led up to and caused the Permian extinction is a rather sobering one given the changes we are seeing around the world today. This book will inform your thinking long after you finish it.

[Mark Foskey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and erudite, in discussing the greatest mass extinction of all time this book reminds the reader how long interesting life was around before there were dinosaurs. With considerable grace the author weaves together the human history of this research (going back to the beginnings of geology), what it is like to be a researcher now, and the discoveries that are being made.

The big five mass extinctions are all touched on, with special attention paid to the end of the dinosaurs. The book lays out the cases that the impact at Chicxulub ended the dinosaurs, and the Siberian Traps (a massive, sustained volcanic eruption) caused the Permian extinction. Skeptics will raise the point that similar disasters happened at other times without corresponding mass extinctions. Benton does not hide from this, but all he can do is note that this is a mystery at present.

Recommended.

[Michelle Bizzell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love paleontology and was thrilled to see the one book I could find about the end Permian mass extinction finally available on audio book. It almost feels like an understatement to say that Benton went into great detail about every aspect of the extinction and the history of the study of mass extinction events, including the long period of resistance to the idea if "catastrophism" by geologists and paleontologists. In all honesty, I could not physically retain that much information and I have a suspicion it might be more than some readers signed up for. While it is probably a fair critique that this was a bit dense and specialized for a non-technical book, I absolutely loved reading it. The challenge of keeping up with an author who made no caveats for casual reader was exciting and I loved getting into the nuts and bolts of paleontology. 🦕🦖🐗

[Richard H. Lambert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A treatise on past extinctions, their causes and aftermath.

I found this book fascinating and revealing. The author approaches the subject as a detective gifted with a sense of humour. Paralleling the extinction event that kiĺled off the dinosaurs with the far more mysterious and remote Permian extinction and, ultimately the current extinction event being triggered by human activities. Well researched and well written. A good read for the paleo-biologist and geology buff alike.

[Rick Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this if geology and/or paleontology have been a mystery to you!

There is no better way to understand a field than to learn it's history. Even better when that field is itself a history, the history of life on earth! With the focus being paleontology Benton's work effortlessly explores geology and evolution in the context of mass extinction. Lastly, the book offers insights into where earth is headed in this time of rapid global warming.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall this was a very good read and an enjoyable introduction to paleontology to the casually interested non-specialist. I am a biologist, but you don’t have to be a scientist to enjoy this book about the end-Permian mass extinction event.

The end-Permian mass extinction event occurred about 250 million years ago, and while it’s not nearly as well known as the end-Cretaceous (which did in the dinosaurs), it was far worse, with a loss of 90% of all extant species. For a book about the end-Permian, it contained a great deal about the end-Cretaceous, but I think this can be justified. The end-Cretaceous is so well-known and has so captured the popular imagination that linking a lesser-known but still catastrophic extinction event to it will automatically make the lesser-known event more relatable. Because some paleontologists have suggested the end-Permian extinction was caused by an asteroid, the end-Cretaceous also provides a good point of comparison.

Benton explores not only the consequences of the end-Permian extinction as shown in the continental and marine fossil records but also two possible causes. The book was well-written and managed to strike a balance between being accessible to non-specialists and satisfying specialists, who can consult the notes for references to the appropriate scientific papers. However, there is still quite a bit of speculation, especially because Benton’s favored hypothesis involves a series of catastrophic volcanic eruptions that would have triggered the release of massive quantities of methane from (as yet unproven) oceanic reservoirs. The catastrophic series of volcanic eruptions during the appropriate time frame has been established and would have been enough to suppress most photosynthetic activity for years. However, what was never mentioned in the book was how badly this would affect the carbon cycle, and therefore life (all known life is carbon-based). Because this has serious implications for today, I’d like to elaborate.

Photosynthesis removes CO2 from the atmosphere, so any serious decrease in photosynthetic capacity (or an increase in CO2 levels that overwhelms current photosynthetic capacity), would allow carbon dioxide to start accumulating in the atmosphere. The more CO2 in the atmosphere, the more there is to interact with the water in the clouds to make acid rain and to interact with the water in the ocean to feed the reactions that increase ocean acidity (thus knocking out even more photosynthetic capacity). Worse yet, the more acidic the oceans become, the less capable they become of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and incorporating it into the oceanic sediments that ultimately become limestone. The result is that atmospheric CO2 levels go up, and one hell of a vicious cycle is created.

It doesn't even stop there, because photosynthesis also fixes carbon dioxide. So as increasingly acidic water continues knocking out photosynthetic capacity, less and less biologically useful carbon will be available to most other organisms, even as the atmosphere is flooded with carbon dioxide. The problems are so great that I would go so far as to say that the underlying cause of the end-Permian mass extinction event was actually a deranged carbon cycle.

This does relate to the book, because in the last chapter, Benton discusses “current events” (the book was published in 2003), and whether we are at risk of causing a sixth mass extinction event. His primary focus is on how humans are destroying entire habitats as opposed to a few species, and an ecosystem can cope a lot better with the loss of a few species than the loss of entire habitats. While this is true, I think we would do far better to think in terms of a gravely disrupted carbon cycle. Given the human talent for mass deforestation and enthusiasm for releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide into the air, the carbon cycle is already well on its way to becoming deranged again – and a severely disrupted carbon cycle may well take tens of millions of years to recover.

Benton also does a good job showing the rehabilitation of catastrophism in geology. Unfortunately, he also describes young-earth creationists as a “fringe group” without acknowledging that in some ways they are the ultimate catastrophists (e.g., believing the Grand Canyon was formed in a matter of months by the same catastrophic global flood that caused Pangea to break up). Arguing against Lyell’s concept of the uniformity of rates also is something that regularly occurs in that community, because any arguments against it can then be used to call into question all radiometric dating techniques (by saying decay rates have changed over time and are not constant). It was very bothersome to me to keep reading arguments for catastrophism and complaints about young-earth creationists without any effort to address the overlap in beliefs. There were a few other minor irritants, including that an estimate of the total number of species on earth did not include the mention of any members of the plant kingdom.

Despite these issues, I very much enjoyed this book, at least partly because of the writing style. One of my favorite quotes: "Life can best be thought of as a great tree…During a mass extinction, vast swathes of the tree are cut short, as if attacked by crazed, axe-wielding madmen.”

[Mari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had this on my shelf to read for a year and finally had the time to pull it out! (thanks, COVID)

Definitely more geological history-intensive than I realized it would be, but I can see the logic of needing a lot of that framework to fully explain how they got to their conclusions of the end-Permian extinction event.

I guess when I picked out the book I was hoping to have a really deep dive into what the event itself was like, but now I realize that was sort of silly because there's only so much you can cover. The history part ended up being quite interesting though, and I found myself googling some of the geologists named in the book to find out more about them. There were some real characters in the field back when.

If anything the book made me realize how much I didn't know. I came to the book thinking "oh, I really don't know much about the details of this extinction event, it might be good to know," and then I started reading and realized I had NO idea why it actually happened and actually needed to read the book to find out - almost like the book said of geologists many years ago, I accepted that there *were* these events without having absorbed or wondered at the specifics of "why." (I took a geology course in college so it's possible I just forgot!)

And like I was telling my grandma, once you read about it fully you realize what an extraordinary event it was in the history of the entire planet, and it's amazing we're not talking about it more. But the dinosaur extinction gets all the limelight...

Is there anything else I would have included? Not really. I think there is some interesting data around extinctions that could have complemented the book - Benton touched on this with the possibility that Pangaea heightened the impact of the Siberian basalts, etc - I read another book just on the data of extinction that explains how there is a predictable loss of biodiversity every time land masses unite. I read it so long ago that I can't remember much other than there is interesting data backing these events... so may need to go back to that one!

Overall, a great read for a strange time (now) in human ecological history.

Edit to add after being reminded:

There were a few strange bits in the book. I only picked up on the oddness of including the Marie Celeste ship because I had listened to a podcast about it in the same week. The podcast didn't even mention the idea of gasses being the culprit, and really, it's far more outlandish than what they think actually happened (and with less evidence). I had a feeling of "stay in your lane, bud" toward the author - no need to try and solve centuries-old ship mysteries

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

First started this book years ago in paperback, but finished its audiobook version. Most readers complain that the vast majority of this book covers the entire history of paleontology with only minimal coverage of the Permian extinction itself, yet I got a different impression from the audiobook. From Chapter 7 on, the story centers on the worse mass extinction in world history that ended the Paleozoic Era.

I've listened to shorter versions of this same story from the Charles River Editors paleontology volumes, yet was surprised to learn that the breakup of the single supercontinent Pangea triggered this global catastrophe.

The Siberian Traps reveal that 252 million years ago, super volcanoes erupted in Russia with enough lava to bury our entire country beneath molten magma reaching the height of the Eiffel Tower, killing 96% of life on earth! Enormous quantities of sulfur, methane, and carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere, triggering a runaway global warming event with downpours of acid rain. 

Ironically, only 51 mya later more volcanoes exploded again triggering another mass extinction event at the end of the Triassic that killed 76% of life on earth, and the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous 134 mya years afterwards set off more volcanic eruptions in India spawning the Deccan Traps.  

I wish I had a time machine to see these ultra-violent periods of earth history in person, and wish I could've visited the Paleozoic Era before it ended to witness dragonflies the size of geese, six-foot cockroach ancestors, and eight-foot millipedes. Prehistoric life was awesome and terrifying!

[عبد الله القصير · Rating 3 out of 5]

عندما أوشكت الحياة على الفناء، كتاب بعلم الإحاثة القديم يشرح فيه المؤلف أشد حالات الانقراض التي تعرضت لها الحياة على كوكب الأرض قبل 250 مليون سنة. حصل في تاريخ الحياة على الأرض خمس حالات انقراض ضخمة وفيها يموت عدد كبير من الكائنات الحية، آخرها حصل قبل 60 مليون سنة عندما مات حوالي 50% من الكائنات بما فيها الديناصورات بسبب نيزك سماوي ضرب الأرض. هذا الانقراض دُرِس وفُهِم بشكل كبير بسبب قربه زمنيا من وقتنا الحاضر مقارنة بما حصل قبله وبسبب شغف الناس بالديناصورات بالوقت الحديث. الانقراضات الأخرى حصلت بالأزمان السحيقة ومن الصعب دراستها. لكن مؤلف هذا الكتاب درس أكثرها خطورة وهو انقراض البرمي-الثلاثي وفيه مات أكثر من 90% من الأنواع الحية على الأرض فهو أم الانقراضات. سبب هذا الانقراض غير معروف بدقة لكن المؤلف يرى أن السبب هو ثورات بركانية حدثت في سيبيريا تسببت بارتفاع درجة حرارة الأرض وفورات غاز الميثاين من أعماق البحار، هذا قاد إلى انخفاض نسبة الأوكسجين بالغلاف الجوي ثم إلى فناء هذا العدد الضخم من الكائنات الحية.
الكتبا جيد وملئ بالمعلومات الشيقة لكن المؤلف استغرق أكثر من نصف الكتاب في الكلام عن تاريخ علم الإحاثة ورفض العلماء لفكرة الانقراض المفاجئ والتي برأيي لا تستحق كل هذا التفصيل إلا إذا كانت هي موضوع الكتاب الرئيسي. ثم أطال بالكلام عن انقراض الديناصورات، ليأتي بآخر الكتاب ويقول زبدة ما حدث في انقراض البرمي-الثلاثي وسبب حدوثه. ولأني تبرمت من التفاصيل السابقة وجدت نفسي شارد الذهن وأنا أقرأ هذه الفصول المهمة، لاضطر أن أرجع وأعيد قراءتها مرة أخرى.

[Sal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a terrific read which looks at the history of mass extinction events, and in particular the end Permian event that nearly saw the end of all life on Earth.
The book explores the debates that have raged between catastrophists and gradualists over the centuries. There is a detailed section on the KPg event - the meteor that killed off the dinosaurs - and how that fundamentally changed our understanding of mass extinction. The uncovering of geological sections in South Africa and China that cover the end Permian event were brought to vivid life because the author was involved in uncovering some of the evidence. It becomes a fascinating detective story as all the evidence is pulled together to make a plausible and convincing narrative.
The book is an easy read - short chapters and some great illustrations. I liked the way it ended with a look at our current Sixth extinction, showing that it is important to look at these past extinctions to stop ourselves walking stupidly into a self inflicted one.
Highly recommended.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting coverage of the mass extinction of life on land and in the sea that took place 251 million years ago. While the book is written for a general audience, I think it will only appeal to readers with a very substantial interest in the history of life on our little planet.
The book documents the fact that nearly all life was snuffed out, but maddeningly admits that we don't know what the cause(s) was. The various possible causes are discussed and what the evidence is that has been discovered so far.
My personal opinion is that it was triggered by an asteroid collision even much larger than the one that caused the later extinction of the dinosaurs, resulting in the rise of the mammals and us.
The book concludes with a discussion of the global warming now taking place which could lead to the next great mass extinction if Homo sapiens doesn't learn quickly how we must take better care of our little planet.