The Next Species: The Future of Evolution in the Aftermath of Man
Language: English
Pages: 336
ISBN: 1451677529
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
“Simultaneously sobering and exhilarating, Michael Tennesen’s wide-ranging survey of disasters highlights both life’s fragility and its metamorphosing persistence” (Booklist) and describes what life on earth could look like after the next mass extinction.
A growing number of scientists agree we are headed toward a mass extinction, perhaps in as little as 300 years. Already there have been five mass extinctions in the last 600 million years, including the Cretaceous Extinction, during which an asteroid knocked out the dinosaurs. Though these events were initially destructive, they were also prime movers of evolutionary change in nature. And we can see some of the warning signs of another extinction event coming, as our oceans lose both fish and oxygen, and our lands lose both predators and prey. In The Next Species, Michael Tennesen questions what life might be like after it happens.
In thoughtful, provocative ways, Tennesen discusses the future of nature and whether humans will make it through the bottleneck of extinction. Could life suddenly get very big as it did before the arrival of humans? Could the conquest of Mars lead to another form of human? Could we upload our minds into a computer and live in a virtual reality? How would we recognize the next humans? Are they with us now?
Tennesen delves into the history of the planet and travels to rainforests, canyons, craters, and caves all over the world to explore the potential winners and losers of the next era of evolution. His predictions, based on reports and interviews with top scientists, have vital implications for life on earth today. The Next Species is “an engrossing history of life, the dismal changes wrought by man, and a forecast of life after the sixth mass extinction” (Kirkus Reviews).
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through savanna, then dense tropical forest, and arrived by evening in the city of Manaus perched at the junction of the Rio Negro and the Amazon River. The city was alive with vendors, farmers, and tourists in the afternoon sun. Manaus is the largest city in the central Amazon. A group of archaeologists greeted me at the station, and soon I was headed by ferry across the Rio Negro to their field site on the Amazon. By morning we rolled out of hammocks, ate a hearty breakfast of eggs, fruit,
They are tolerant of both low-oxygen environments and ocean acidification. A look into the future of the ocean could take us to the Republic of Palau, a group of islands about 550 miles east of the Philippines. About ninety thousand tourists visit Palau annually and one of their favorite haunts is Jellyfish Lake (Ongem’l Tketau to the locals), which is easily accessible by boat from Koror, Palau’s capital. There are five landlocked marine lakes on Palau and each has different species of
soldier, wearing no seat belt, one arm hooked through a wall handle adjacent to the open door, was perched dangerously with his legs and gun dangling out the helicopter. Insurgents had wounded one of his comrades the day before, and he scanned the forest below, looking for trouble. Our view stretched eastward over the Amazon Basin where the sun had already begun to heat the tropical forest, turning its moisture into towering thunderheads, which by noon would begin to assault the eastern face of
are ancient, dating back 600 million to 700 million years or more. That’s three times the age of the first dinosaurs. Acuña speculates that jellyfish have survived and will continue to thrive in the future by evolving large, water-filled bodies that can come in contact with more prey. Although larger bodies are less efficient, collecting your prey while drifting through the water beats the high-energy costs of hunting it down. He sides with those who think that overfishing is promoting the
pigmented green, red, and purple to catch the limited light. “It’s a fairly advanced form of life,” said Wharton. “You’ve got a cell wall, and you’ve got DNA inside the cell to pass on information to its offspring. It’s not elephants, but it’s a big step in the evolution of biology.” Despite a mean temperature of minus 28 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 33 degrees Celsius) above the ice, underneath everything’s toasty and above freezing. The ice provides what scientists call “thermal buffering.”
