Terra; our 100-million-year-old ecosystem—and the threats that now put it at risk

Terra; our 100-million-year-old ecosystem--and the threats that now put it at risk.

Novacek, Michael.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

2007

451 pages

$27.00

Hardcover

QE721

Writing for a general audience, paleontologist Novacek (Vice President and Provost of Science, American Museum of Natural History) synthesizes and summarizes current scientific knowledge about the past 475 million years of environmental history from the emergence of life on land to the anthropogenic problems that threaten our current ecosystem. In addition to describing the emergence and diversification of life, with frequent asides concerning this or that particularly fascinating creature, he discusses the asteroid-related mass extinction event of some 65 million years ago and the impact of humans on ecosystems from our first appearance on the environmental stage to our ability to change the planet's climate.

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