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Title: When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time by Michael Benton, Michael J. Benton ISBN: 0-500-05116-X Publisher: Thames & Hudson Pub. Date: May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (4 reviews)

Rating: 2
Summary: Long run, short slide into the Jurassic
Comment: There are lots of interesting facts and stories in this book, and eventually they are assembled into a theory on the cause of the end-Permian extinction. First, though, we learn a lot about nineteenth century geology from a European, primarily British perspective. Then we learn a lot, a whole lot, about other extinctions. Finally, we get a rather tentative, politically correct proposal for the cause of the end-Permian extinction. The author even quotes Al Gore.
Fortunately, the author writes in a relatively readable manner and knows well the many subjects he presents . The graphs and illustrations are well done and complement the text. I just wish the book were shorter and more direct or that the author had split it into two.

Rating: 3
Summary: A misleading title
Comment: This book's title implies that it is primarily about the end Permian extinction, the largest known to science. In fact, direct discussion of that event occupies less than twenty per cent of the text. Much of the rest is a history of scientific ideas about the history of life and the great extinctions, with considerable attention to the individuals who advocated them. While the book is written in a readable style, the reader may be frustrated by the author's cautiousness in drawing conclusions about the Big One. The book ends with a discussion of what Benton calls the Sixth Extinction, caused by human activity, implying that it is comparable to the one at the end of the Permian. While this has become fashionable in popularized books about science, we haven't come near the Permian extinction level - yet.

Rating: 4
Summary: Lots of good geology, but not enough PTr event
Comment: I enjoyed the history of geology and especially the
history of establishing the Permian age itself. I
liked the thorough discussion of the Russian sites,
but as a geoscience professional I am probably more
inclined to this than the average reader. There was
also a good discussion of the KT event (that wiped out
the dinosaurs) and several other extinction events.
My gripe is that when he finally got around to the PTr
(Permian - Triassic)event, he basically explained why
certain hypothoses were not good, but didn't really
give a strong hypothesis of his own. Maybe that is
because the evidence is not good enough to have a strong
hypothosis, but the title is misleading in that case.
Overall, I recommend the book as a history of geology
and the Permian specifically, but don't expect to come
away with a real answer.

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