Extinction
Category archives for Extinction
Triassic Life on Land: I love this book
Posted by Greg Laden on July 28, 2010 The Triassic is old. This book is new. That is a hard to beat combination.
Extinction of the Old, Evolution of the New: What really happened to the dinosaurs?
Posted by Greg Laden on May 6, 2009 Many years ago, a sudden event occurred that changed everything. Or at least, that is what we think now. But in truth, the event took longer than many today believe, and many of the specific details, the exact order of events, the actual meaning of each detail, are not fully understood. Indeed, in the process…
Gerta Keller goes after impact theory again
Posted by Greg Laden on May 5, 2009 Keller has been one of the leading voices opposing the impact KT boundary extinction hypothesis. According to a press release from her university, she has more on this matter.
The Fantastic Mystery of the Younger Dryas
Posted by Greg Laden on January 11, 2009 One of the most interesting and exciting stories in science is that of the Younger Dryas. The Younger Dryas was a climate event that had important effects on human history, and that has been reasonably linked to some of our most important cultural changes, and ultimately some evolutionary changes as well. That is one reason…
Should we clone a Neanderthal. Or maybe two?
Posted by Greg Laden on November 26, 2008 Personally, I think we should start with a dodo, and then work our way up the ethical ladder from there. … We know roughly how the sequence of life ran forward in time. What about running it backward? … Last week in Nature, scientists reported major progress in sequencing the genome of woolly mammoths. [see…
Arabian Dinosaur Trackway Discovered
Posted by Greg Laden on June 1, 2008 Dinosaur tracks are reported for the first time on the Arabian Peninsula. These new tracks are located in Yemen. This find is interesting and important for several reasons.
New in Paperback Book on Permian Mass Extinction
Posted by Greg Laden on April 14, 2008 When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time is a book by Michael Benton on the Permian Extinction now out in paperback. From the press release: Today it is common knowledge that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteorite impact sixty-five million years ago, which killed half of all species then…
Did sexist white males cause the extinction of the woolly mammoth, or was it climate change?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 7, 2008 Ever since 3,599 years ago humans have been asking the question “Why did our furry elephant go extinct?” What caused the woolly mammoth’s (not to be confused with the also-woolly mastodon) extinction? Climate warming in the Holocene might have driven the extinction of this cold-adapted species, yet the species had survived previous warming periods, suggesting…
Mammals and the KT Event
Posted by Greg Laden on April 4, 2008 A very important and truly wonderful paper in Nature described a tour-de-force analysis of the Mammalian Evolutionary Record, and draws the following two important conclusions: The diversification of the major groups of mammals occurred millions of years prior to the KT boundary event; and The further diversification of these groups into the modern pattern of…
Darwin and the Voyage: 11 ~ Elephants and Horses
Posted by Greg Laden on February 22, 2008 
In 1833, Darwin spent a fair amount of time on the East Coast of South America, including in the Pampas, where he had access to abundant fossil material. Here I’d like to examine his writings about some of the megafauna, including Toxodon, Mastodon, and horses, and his further considerations of biogeography and evolution.