Download or read book Ice Age Extinctions a New Theory written by John Stojanowski and published by . This book was released on 2016-02-23 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For at least the past century scientists have been trying to explain the extinction of megafauna during the past Ice Ages. Mammoths, mastodons, giant ground sloths, cave bears and many other mammals disappeared throughout the Pleistocene Epoch. The last of these giant animals became extinct around 10-12 thousand years ago. Human hunting and climate change are the competing extinction hypotheses but neither has consistently emerged as the dominant explanation. Is there a third contender that is better able to explain the extinctions? Yes there is and this book describes the theory that not only can explain the megafauna extinctions but the extinctions of the Neanderthals, the Hobbit and the cause of geomagnetic reversals of the Earth. The coincidence of extinction periods, flood basalt volcanic eruption and geomagnetic reversals during the Pleistocene Epoch is well documented. The author's theory described in this book is the only one that can explain this coincidence.
Download or read book Twilight of the Mammoths written by Paul S. Martin and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007-05-08 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Paul S. Martin's innovative ideas on late quaternary extinctions and wildlife restoration have fueled one of science's most stimulating recent debates. He expounds them vividly here, and defends them eloquently. A must-read."—David Rains Wallace, author of Beasts of Eden "This is a marvelous read, by a giant in American prehistory, about one of the greatest mysteries in the earth sciences."—Tim Flannery, author of The Eternal Frontier "Whether or not you agree with Paul Martin, he has shaped how we think about our Pleistocene ancestors and their role in transforming this planet."—Ross D. E. MacPhee, Curator of Mammalogy, American Museum of Natural History
Download or read book Once and Future Giants written by Sharon Levy and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-22 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Until about 13,000 years ago, North America was home to a menagerie of massive mammals. Mammoths, camels, and lions walked the ground that has become Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles and foraged on the marsh land now buried beneath Chicago's streets. Then, just as the first humans reached the Americas, these Ice Age giants vanished forever. In Once and Future Giants, science writer Sharon Levy digs through the evidence surrounding Pleistocene large animal ("megafauna") extinction events worldwide, showing that understanding this history--and our part in it--is crucial for protecting the elephants, polar bears, and other great creatures at risk today. These surviving relatives of the Ice Age beasts now face the threat of another great die-off, as our species usurps the planet's last wild places while driving a warming trend more extreme than any in mammalian history. Deftly navigating competing theories and emerging evidence, Once and Future Giants examines the extent of human influence on megafauna extinctions past and present, and explores innovative conservation efforts around the globe. The key to modern-day conservation, Levy suggests, may lie fossilized right under our feet.
Download or read book Canon of Insolation and the Ice age Problem written by Milutin Milanković and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book End of the Megafauna The Fate of the World s Hugest Fiercest and Strangest Animals written by Ross D E MacPhee and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating lives and puzzling demise of some of the largest animals on earth. Until a few thousand years ago, creatures that could have been from a sci-fi thriller—including gorilla-sized lemurs, 500-pound birds, and crocodiles that weighed a ton or more—roamed the earth. These great beasts, or “megafauna,” lived on every habitable continent and on many islands. With a handful of exceptions, all are now gone. What caused the disappearance of these prehistoric behemoths? No one event can be pinpointed as a specific cause, but several factors may have played a role. Paleomammalogist Ross D. E. MacPhee explores them all, examining the leading extinction theories, weighing the evidence, and presenting his own conclusions. He shows how theories of human overhunting and catastrophic climate change fail to account for critical features of these extinctions, and how new thinking is needed to elucidate these mysterious losses. Along the way, we learn how time is determined in earth history; how DNA is used to explain the genomics and phylogenetic history of megafauna—and how synthetic biology and genetic engineering may be able to reintroduce these giants of the past. Until then, gorgeous four-color illustrations by Peter Schouten re-create these megabeasts here in vivid detail.
Download or read book Breaking the Ice Age Myth written by Beata Smith and published by . This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ice age, glaciers, extinction. For years prominent creation science ministries have promoted these as intertwined facts following the great flood of Noah's time. But is the ice age really factual? Is it both biblically and historically accurate? Or is it a perpetuated myth? What does the evidence really say? With only one venerated theory being touted, distinguishing between fact and myth can be difficult. Breaking the Ice Age Myth exposes the weaknesses of the post-flood ice age theory by exploring post-flood volcanism, precipitation, and climate change, as well as ice core records, fossils, frozen remains, caves, ancient maps, sunken cities, geologic evidence, early history, and the Bible. Supplemented with articles by creation scientist Douglas Cox and historical commentator Vern Crisler, this book challenges conventional wisdom and provides solid answers to the ice age mystery. While educating her children about climate change after the flood, Smith investigated the claims of the post-flood ice age theory. Her desire to verify scientific conclusions and teach her children with discernment resulted in this book. Breaking the Ice Age Myth sheds new light on truths that some creation scientists would rather we forget.
Download or read book The Call of Distant Mammoths written by Peter D. Ward and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To help us understand what happened during the Ice Age, Peter Ward takes us on a tour of other mass extinctions through earth's history. He presents a compelling account of the great comet crash that killed off the dinosaurs, and describes other extinctions that were even more extensive. In so doing, he introduces us to a profound paradigm shift now taking place in paleontology: rather than arising from the gradual workings of everyday forces, all mass extinctions are due to unique, catastrophic events. Written with an irresistible combination of passion and expertise, The Call of Distant Mammoths is an engaging exploration of the history of life and the importance of humanity as an evolutionary force. "Carefully argued...an intelligent and compelling book."-THE OLYMPIAN, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON "Ward deftly summarizes a large body of scientific literature, simplifying complex ideas for the general reader without condescension."-PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "Did the overkill really happen?...Peter Ward deftly summarizes the arguments...Ward tells (the story) well."-THE NEW SCIENTIST
Download or read book The Sixth Extinction written by Elizabeth Kolbert and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2014-02-11 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino. Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.
Download or read book After the Ice Age written by E.C. Pielou and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating story of how a harsh terrain that resembled modern Antarctica has been transformed gradually into the forests, grasslands, and wetlands we know today.
Download or read book Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinction written by George R. McGhee Jr. and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-07 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Picture a world of dog-sized scorpions and millipedes as long as a car; tropical rainforests with trees towering over 150 feet into the sky and a giant polar continent five times larger than Antarctica. That world was not imaginary; it was the earth more than 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous period of the Paleozoic era. In Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinction, George R. McGhee Jr. explores that ancient world, explaining its origins; its downfall in the end-Permian mass extinction, the greatest biodiversity crisis to occur since the evolution of animal life on Earth; and how its legacies still affect us today. McGhee investigates the consequences of the Late Paleozoic ice age in this comprehensive portrait of the effects of ancient climate change on global ecology. Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinction examines the climatic conditions that allowed for the evolution of gigantic animals and the formation of the largest tropical rainforests ever to exist, which in time turned into the coal that made the industrial revolution possible—and fuels the engine of contemporary anthropogenic climate change. Exploring the strange and fascinating flora and fauna of the Late Paleozoic ice age world, McGhee focuses his analysis on the forces that brought this world to an abrupt and violent end. Synthesizing decades of research and new discoveries, this comprehensive book provides a wealth of insights into past and present extinction events and climate change.
Download or read book Vanished Giants written by Anthony J. Stuart and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-01-28 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring numerous illustrations, this book explores the many lessons to be learned from Pleistocene megafauna, including the role of humans in their extinction, their disappearance at the start of the Sixth Extinction, and what they might teach us about contemporary conservation crises. Long after the extinction of dinosaurs, when humans were still in the Stone Age, woolly rhinos, mammoths, mastodons, sabertooth cats, giant ground sloths, and many other spectacular large animals that are no longer with us roamed the Earth. These animals are regarded as “Pleistocene megafauna,” named for the geological era in which they lived—also known as the Ice Age. In Vanished Giants: The Lost World of the Ice Age, paleontologist Anthony J. Stuart explores the lives and environments of these animals, moving between six continents and several key islands. Stuart examines the animals themselves via what we’ve learned from fossil remains, and he describes the landscapes, climates, vegetation, ecological interactions, and other aspects of the animals’ existence. Illustrated throughout, Vanished Giants also offers a picture of the world as it was tens of thousands of years ago when these giants still existed. Unlike the case of the dinosaurs, there was no asteroid strike to blame for the end of their world. Instead, it appears that the giants of the Ice Age were driven to extinction by climate change, human activities—especially hunting—or both. Drawing on the latest evidence provided by radiocarbon dating, Stuart discusses these possibilities. The extinction of Ice Age megafauna can be seen as the beginning of the so-called Sixth Extinction, which is happening right now. This has important implications for understanding the likely fate of present-day animals in the face of contemporary climate change and vastly increasing human populations.
Download or read book Frozen in Time written by Michael Oard and published by New Leaf Publishing Group. This book was released on 2004-11-01 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Earth's past is littered with the mysterious and unexplained: the pyramids, Easter Island, Stonehenge, dinosaurs, and the list goes on and on as science looks for clues to decipher these puzzles. One such mystery surrounds the now-extinct creature called the woolly mammoth. Author and meteorologist Michael Oard has studied the mammoth and its equally mysterious time period, the Ice Age, for many years and has come to some fascinating conclusions to help lift the fog engulfing the facts. Some of the questions he addresses include: What would cause the summer temperatures of the northern United States and European to plummet more than 50 degrees Fahrenheit? Why did mammoths become extinct across the entire earth at the same time as many other large mammals? Why are the mammoth carcasses found generally in standing positions? How could large lakes exist in what are today very dry, desert-like places? What was the source of the abnormal of moisture necessary for heavy snow? What caused the cold summer temperatures and heavy snowfall to persist for hundreds of years? In logical progression many other Ice Age topics are explained including super Ice Age floods, ice cores, man in the Ice Age, and the number of ice ages. This is one of the most difficult eras in geological history for a uniformitarian scientist (one who believes the earth evolved by slow processes over millions of years) to explain, simply because long ages of evolution cannot explain it. Provided here are plausible explanations of the seemingly unsolvable mysterious about the Ice Age and the woolly mammoths - Frozen in Time.
Download or read book New Data Upset Ice Age Theories written by Philip Campbell and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ice Age Extinction written by Jim Snook and published by Algora Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author explores the causes of Earth's cyclical temperature changes and shows how those temperature shifts touch off a chain of events in the atmosphere, in the oceans and on land. Cold temperature was the trigger; and the resultant reduction in carbon dioxide, he argues, was the bullet that killed off so many species. The re-warming released more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and fueled a resurgence. This book provides significant long term background information to put global warming into perspective. In addition, the author describes the human responses to increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide after the last ice age and in the last 150 years. Near the end of the last ice age, atmospheric carbon dioxide was about half of what it is today. Due to the lack of carbon dioxide, most of the vegetation disappeared from the middle and high latitudes. Without plants to eat, many large animals became extinct; North America lost three-fourths of its large animals including the woolly mammoth, mastodon and saber tooth cat. Humans, too, had little to eat in these areas and their population declined dramatically. The book then explains how and why atmospheric carbon dioxide increased by about 50% after the last ice age ended, encouraging a population explosion among plants, animals and humans, all of which then migrated into many previously barren areas. More recently, the 28% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide in the last 150 years has caused a six-fold increase in the human population. Changes in the next 300 years will reverse some of the current trends. This book has value for anyone interested in the ice age extinction; glaciers; the glacial cycle; the atmosphere and oceans and the past and future of plants, animals and humans. It provides long-term information on atmospheric carbon dioxide, global warming and cooling.
Download or read book Ice Ages written by John Imbrie and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book tells the exciting story of the ice ages--what they were like, why they occurred, and when the next one is due. The solution to the ice age mystery originated when the National Science Foundation organized the CLIMAP project to study changes in the earth's climate over the past 700,000 years. One of the goals was to produce a map of the earth during the last ice age. Scientists examined cores of sediment from the Indian Ocean bed and deciphered a continuous history for the past 500,000 years. Their work ultimately confirmed the theory that the earth's irregular orbital motions account for the bizarre climatic changes which bring on ice ages. This is a tale of scientific discovery and the colorful people who participated: Louis Agassiz, the young Swiss naturalist whose geological studies first convinced scientists that the earth has recently passed through an ice age; the Reverend William Buckland, an eccentric but respected Oxford professor who fought so hard against the ice-age theory before accepting it; James Croll, a Scots mechanic who educated himself as a scientist and first formulated the astronomic theory of ice ages; Milutin Milankovitch, the Serbian mathematician who gave the astronomic theory its firm quantitative foundation; and the many other astronomers, geochemists, geologists, paleontologists, and geophysicists who have been engaged for nearly a century and a half in the pressing search for a solution to the ice-age mystery.
Download or read book First Peoples in a New World written by David J. Meltzer and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2009-05-27 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 12,000 years ago, in one of the greatest triumphs of prehistory, humans colonized North America, a continent that was then truly a new world. Just when and how they did so has been one of the most perplexing and controversial questions in archaeology. This dazzling, cutting-edge synthesis, written for a wide audience by an archaeologist who has long been at the center of these debates, tells the scientific story of the first Americans: where they came from, when they arrived, and how they met the challenges of moving across the vast, unknown landscapes of Ice Age North America. David J. Meltzer pulls together the latest ideas from archaeology, geology, linguistics, skeletal biology, genetics, and other fields to trace the breakthroughs that have revolutionized our understanding in recent years. Among many other topics, he explores disputes over the hemisphere's oldest and most controversial sites and considers how the first Americans coped with changing global climates. He also confronts some radical claims: that the Americas were colonized from Europe or that a crashing comet obliterated the Pleistocene megafauna. Full of entertaining descriptions of on-site encounters, personalities, and controversies, this is a compelling behind-the-scenes account of how science is illuminating our past.
Download or read book How to Clone a Mammoth written by Beth Shapiro and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insider's view on bringing extinct species back to life Could extinct species, like mammoths and passenger pigeons, be brought back to life? In How to Clone a Mammoth, Beth Shapiro, an evolutionary biologist and pioneer in ancient DNA research, addresses this intriguing question by walking readers through the astonishing and controversial process of de-extinction. From deciding which species should be restored to anticipating how revived populations might be overseen in the wild, Shapiro vividly explores the extraordinary cutting-edge science that is being used to resurrect the past. Considering de-extinction's practical benefits and ethical challenges, Shapiro argues that the overarching goal should be the revitalization and stabilization of contemporary ecosystems. Looking at the very real and compelling science behind an idea once seen as science fiction, How to Clone a Mammoth demonstrates how de-extinction will redefine conservation's future.
