Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinction: The Late Paleozoic Ice Age World Paperback – Illustrated, August 7, 2018

First off this book is not a casual read. If one has some basic knowledge of the evolution and changes to the earth's environment and geology through time as well as some background in the evolution of life, the book may be easier to follow. This is not meant as a criticism but rather a compliment to emphasize the scholarly nature of the book. George McGhee describes the earth's environment, flora and fauna from the late Devonian, through the Carboniferous and Permian, and into the early Triassic periods spanning roughly 120 million years. This is done in an attempt to understand and explain the massive Permnian extinction. What I appreciated most was that the author was willing to explore alternative hypotheses in consideration of the geological and biological events that took place over this time period. One must keep in mind that the ideas being put forth are based on geochemical analysis and the fossil record. In the end however, the reason(s) for the Permian extinction are still under debate. McGhee leans heavily toward, and provides a strong case, that massive volcanic activity set off a chain of events that lead to the extinction. He did this in a very compelling fashion. The other value of this book is that it is extensively referenced, providing a wealth of subsequent reading on this topic.Perhaps the only criticism I have is that McGhee largely ignores the contribution of phtytoplankton to atmospheric oxygen levels. Today they contribute upwards of 50% of O2 to the atmosphere The precipitous drop in atmospheric O2 at the end of the Permian may well have to do in part to loss of land plants and to the oxidation of methane released into the atmosphere through action of volcanic plumes rising through carbon rich deposits. However the subsequent acidification and heating of the oceans must have had a very significant effect on phtytoplankton and marine O2 production. It would be interesting to learn of any work done on this aspect of the extinction

The book presents a fascinating and detailed view of events and processes of the Paleozoic Era including rain forest diversification and expansion in the Carboniferous period as well as factors controlling ice ages and snowball Earth events throughout geologic history. The author presents a more detailed view of processes and events that likely contributed to the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, the longest ice age on Earth in the past 541 million year, as well as events likely contributing to the end-Permian mass extinction (the largest extinction event on Earth.) The tables and figures are excellent to enhance understanding.

I've been reading books on evolution: The Evolution of Avians, The Evolution of Mammals, the Evolution of Insects (Bugs), etc. I wanted a book that took a specific era and tied everything that took place in that era together, a cross section rather than a vertical emphasis, if you would. This book fovuses on the Carboniferous and the Permian, leading up to the great Permian Extinction at the end of the Paleozoic (90% of living things die). The focus is on early plant forests, fish and amphibians and insects and not on flashy stuff like dinosaurs, but for all that, its a very intersting book. The writing is good and there are a lot of illustrations -- although the illustrations could be better. The book did just what I wanted, described the climate and techtonic movements and then showed how the various animal and plants co-evolved. I've enjoyed the book a lot.

This is one of the best books I’ve found on the Permian extinction. The author spends a lot of time on the development of forests from the Devonian on up through the Triassic which is an excellent overview of the evolution of plant life. Once I understood the great forests of the Carboniferous, I had a better grasp of the reasons why the Tunguska traps had such an impact on extinction. I got a good mental picture of the early Triassic because I could compare the plants before and after the extinction.With the (necessary for me) help of Google images and Wikipedia I felt like I finally got the fauna of the Permian straightened out which meant I could better grasp the devastation of species at the end.The book is very clearly written with very helpful charts. I loved the chart at the end which compares the convergence of fauna in the ecosystems past and present. The margins are all full of my notes and I did a ton of underlining. It was hard going because I needed to look so much up, but it was well worth the time because I learned so much, it was truly a wonderful learning experience! I will go back to it over and over.