BOOK REVIEW

A Permian Murder MysteryExtinction: How Life on Earth Nearly Ended 250 Million Years Ago, by Douglas H. Erwin.Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2006. pp. vii + 296. S/b $22.95

Matthew Williams

Published online: 24 July 2009# Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009

During the largest mass extinction in history, 82% of allgenera disappeared at the end of the Permian, and at first itseems that Extinction, by Douglas H. Erwin, will beexploring natural history’s greatest whodunit. Erwin evenspends his first chapters setting up the suspects: was it Dr.Anoxia in the Oceanic Deepwater with the Shift in StableCarbon Isotopes or was it Col. Prolonged Volcanism in theSiberian Traps with the Sulfurous Gases? Unfortunately, bythe end of this murder mystery, every suspect has aconvincing alibi, there have been many red herrings, andthe reader is left considering the possibility that—as inMurder on the Orient Express—every suspect had somepart in the dirty deed. But amid all this confusion aboutthese competing theories, Erwin is able to guide the readerto a conclusion that, while not something a reader ofmurder mysteries might expect, is just as satisfying.

Erwin starts his book by talking about the barren EarlyTriassic rocks in the Guadalupe Mountains of west Texas. Itis one of several enjoyable asides he takes during the courseof the book, each one telling of the interesting people andplaces he encounters as he scours the globe for Permo-triassic outcrops. These are the stretches of his book that aremost accessible to the lay reader. His descriptions of hiswork in the unique Meishan quarry in China and his tales ofthe extraordinary fossil hunting Rubidge family in SouthAfrica give the book a personal touch that helps meld themore technical sections into a narrative.

Yet the most important parts of Erwin’s book are notconcerned with the modern task of reconstructing theevidence but on the evidence itself, which he lays out in a

series of chapters each dealing with a different piece of datafrom the mass extinction. These portions are where he talksmost about the effect of this truly massive extinction on theflora and fauna of the Paleozoic and just how the moremodern phyla ended up superseding the dominant species ofthe Permian. Each piece of evidence is weighed against thepossible suspects he set up in the beginning, and the possibleconclusions are evaluated. His stories about how theevidence was collected by scientists working at variouslocations around the world occasionally appear, breaking upthe more technical passages and also giving the reader abreak from the jargon that may intimidate non-scientists.

In one sense, the book can be viewed as increasing incomplexity and technical content throughout. Erwinassumes that his readers are growing more proficient inscientific vocabulary and more familiar with the variousconcepts of the book as he goes forward. This assumptionis generally acceptable, though he occasionally gets a littlecarried away with just how far his readers have come. Forexample, though it takes Erwin 164 pages to mention δ13C(rather than referring more generally to the “shift in carbonisotopes” or “changes in the carbon cycle”), he quicklythereafter leaps into discussion of other proxies forPaleozoic climate change and some of the finer points ofcarbon cycle analysis. To readers without a background ingeochemistry and stratigraphy, some of these passages maybecome a little dense, but Erwin generally balances thesepassages with less technical discussions of phenomena suchas asteroid impacts and various methane hydrates. Nomatter how deep the book may get, Erwin manages toexplain these daunting subjects with patience and detail.Students (or adults!) with a memory of their high schoolscience classes will find themselves prepared to grasp allthe concepts he discusses, though some passages maynecessitate a second reading.

Evo Edu Outreach (2009) 2:567–568DOI 10.1007/s12052-009-0151-2

M. Williams (*)Manhattan Village Academy,New York, USAe-mail: paleoguy@gmail.com

The most baffling part of the book is likely to be theextensive degree to which Erwin is able to debunk each andall of the theories he presents as possible causes for thismass extinction. Readers might not be satisfied with amurder mystery that ends with all possible suspects clearedof any wrongdoing and the case left as unsolved, but in thissituation we may indeed have no choice. Erwin is verycareful to note that the quarter of a billion years betweenthe End-Permian extinction and today do much to erasewhat evidence we may have and that no theory of massextinction (even the well-known asteroid impact that endedthe Mesozoic Era) is immune from criticism and whollyaccepted by the entire scientific community. Yet it seemsthat extinction central to his book of the same name will beforever shrouded in uncertainty. There will always bedifferent interpretations of and severe limitations on thedata gathered, and in the end, it will be unlikely that we canpin down a single cause for such an event.

Erwin himself even invokes the idea that multiple causesmay be to blame, which he refers to as the Murder on theOrient Express hypothesis. But just in case his readers aretoo quick to accept this possibility as the most plausible, hequickly points out that if proving one cause is difficult,proving many may border on the impossible. There doescome a point when it seems that there is no remainingtheory to explain the mass extinction. No detective storywould end on such a note, but it is instructive for a sciencestory to strike such a tone.

Too often, science teachers forget that the interestingparts of science are the unknowns, the things that no onehas discovered yet. It is very easy to lose sight of thisbecause so little of the curriculum is dedicated to the things

we do not know about, and getting to the forefront ofscientific knowledge can be daunting if one’s students donot possess degrees in science fields. Extinction, therefore,offers teachers of evolution a marvelous opportunity.Classroom discussions of certain passages, talk of the prosand cons of the various theories that try to explain thedisappearance of so many organisms at one time, andsystematic debunking of each possibility can leave studentswith the wonderful realization that there is much that hasyet to be discovered.

Teachers of evolutionary theory will also find the lastportion of Extinction to be useful. Once the crime ofmass extinction has been committed, even though noneof the suspects are convicted, Erwin lays out the endresults of the event in terms of the recovery and, in somecases reappearance, of marine and terrestrial organismsfollowing the cataclysm. The mysterious Lazarus taxa, aswell as the concepts of niches, body plans, and thelimitations on evolutionary innovation, are all discussedin detail in this section. Plenty of material could be usedin classroom discussions and to provoke questions aboutthe mechanisms of evolution and the lasting effects ofmass extinction.

Overall, Extinction is an engaging and entertaining read.For teachers who need a good primer on the Permotriassicextinction or on mass extinctions in general, it is aninvaluable resource. Even those readers who may havemore knowledge of the time period would find the depth ofthe discussion and the extensive list of references to beuseful. The mystery might remain unsolved, but the thrill ofthe chase is Erwin’s focus here, and he gives it theexcitement it deserves.

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