Oxford University Press, USA
Extinction: A Very Short Introduction
Key Metrics
- Paul B Wignall
- Oxford University Press, USA
- Paperback
- 9780198807285
- 6.8 X 4.3 X 0.5 inches
- 0.35 pounds
- Science > Life Sciences - Biology
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
In this Very Short Introduction, Paul B. Wignall looks at the causes and nature of extinctions, past and present, and the factors that can make a species vulnerable. Summarising what we know about all of the major and minor exctinction events, he examines some of the greatest debates in modern science, such as the relative role of climate and humans in the death of the Pleistocene megafauna, including mammoths and giant ground sloths, and the roles that global warming, ocean acidification, and deforestation are playing in present-day extinctions
ABOUT THE SERIES The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Author Bio
Professor Paul Wignall lectures in palaeontology and sedimentology. He obtained his first degree at the University of Oxford and his PhD at the University of Birmingham under the supervision of Professor Tony Hallam and has been a lecturer at Leeds since 1989.
He has collaborated with numerous colleagues both nationally and internationally, especially at the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), during his wide ranging field expeditions. Wignall has published over 200 research articles and 3 books, most recently: The Worst of Times" How Life on Earth Survived 80 Million Years of Extinctions, published by Princeton University Press and enjoys investigating a very broad spectrum of topics that range from flood basalt eruptions to palaeoecology.
He has supervised nearly 30 PhD students and received several awards including the Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Model of the EGU and the Wolfson Merit Award from the Royal Society. He has served on the REF panel, been editor of several geological journals, been president of several geological societies and appeared in over a dozen science documentaries.
Research interests
Wignall has a broad range of research interests spanning sedimentology and palaeontology. He has been investigating the Permo-Triassic mass extinction since the late 1980s and has broadened his research topics to include study of all crises including the late Devonian (Frasnian/Famennian), end-Cretaceous, end-Triassic and Early Jurassic (Toarcian) mass extinction events. His multidisciplinary approach to the origins of these crises in Earth's history includes the study of their fossil, sequence stratigraphic, geochemical signature and their stable isotope records.
Evidence for marine anoxia is often associated with all of these extinction events and this nicely overlaps with Professor Wignall's other main research interest: the characterisation of black shale depositional environments for which he sues a combination of geochemical, petrographic and palaeoecologcoal approaches. He also investigates Carboniferous basin history of NW Europe.
Education
- BA, Geology (1st Class Honours), University of Oxford
- PhD, Palaeoecology, University of Birmingham
Source: University of Leeds - School of Earth and Environment
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