Teresa Buczinsky’s Reviews > Complexity: The Evolution of Earth's Biodiversity and the Future of Humanity > Status Update

Burger ends this book on a very dark note. He writes “Regrettably, I am a pessimist who sees modern industrial society as unsustainable and human nature as incapable of diminishing its biological and cultural appetites.” So what do we do? He doesn’t say. (A)

Depressing fact: in 1980, Africa was estimated to have 76,000 lions; this estimate plummeted to 35,000 in 2014. Can this loss of animal and plant life be stopped? (A)

Cool facts: mammal-like forms appeared around 220 million years ago. Primates arose about 60 million years ago. Apes developed 20 million years ago, and human ancestors began walking upright 6 million years ago. Agriculture began 10,000 years ago, and humans learned to make steel 3000 years ago. (F)

One of the most terrifying things about the history of planet earth is the Permian extinction that occurred 250 million years ago. Over 90% of everything alive on the earth died. It took 30 million years for the planet to recover from this disaster. (F)

Wow. The hiccups in human beings turn out to be a remnant of a time when our ancient ancestors had both gills and lungs. The mechanism that causes the hiccups is the one that was once used to switch between reading water and breathing air. (F)

It amazes me that until around 500 million years ago, no creature had yet evolved with eyes. That means that for the first 4 billion years of this planet’s existence, nothing was able to see it. (F)

This book divides the 4 1/2 billion year history of life on earth into 10 stages. The first stage relates to the planet’s earliest years. Here is a link to a video that shows a simulation of this terrifying period. https://youtu.be/StqZI9pMq0U (V and F)

Over the past 50,000 years, the human brain has not increased in size. I wonder why? (A)

Our ancient australopithecine ancestor called Lucy lived 3.3 million years ago. Her brain was only about a third the size of our brains. That means that over 3 million years our brains increased in size by three times. That is incredibly fast for evolution. What caused this to happen? (A)

Mammals need 5 to 10 times as much food as reptiles do in order to live. Being smart is expensive. (F)