Customer Reviews

The Late Devonian Mass Extinction

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As with the rest of the books in the Critical Moments series this one goes into exhaustive detail of the timeline of the event in question, the effect on each different Phyla, global evidence and local ramifications. This part of the book is up to the exceptional standards of the rest of the series.

Where the author goes wrong is in his belief in that this extinction event was the result of a meteor impact. Just taking the data presented in this book shows that the theory doesn't hold up. The timing doesn't work (the event took over a million years). Isotopic (iridium) data doesn't support it. The impact craters are too small and at the wrong points in time. The pattern of extinction does not match what would be expected from a major impact event. The list goes on and on. The author tries gamely to explain away the irregularities but by the end of the book I found it clear that the extinction was almost without question not the result of an impact.

That said this is a good book. The author covers the time period and the event in exceptional detail and does cover many of the other competing theories very well. It's just unfortunate that the author could not set aside his cherished preconceptions. But perhaps that is a tough thing to ask for any of us.