Extinction
On the Destiny of Species
Not to take anything away from evolution, but extinction may be the more worthy scientific problem, because whereas we've already evolved, we haven't learned to save ourselves.
The Permian-Triassic Extinction
New evidence and old converges on a volcanic explanation for "the great dying."
The Strangelove Ocean
This colorfully named situation underlies several known episodes of mass extinction.
Seeing Disney's "Dinosaur"
If you're science-literate, you may hold your nose at the movie "Dinosaur." But I submit that if you ignore its distortion of the geologic facts, its deeper message on extinction is worthy of contemplation.
Cycles of Life and Death Through Time
The Hooper Virtual Paleontological Museum hosts this extensive survey of extinction events from the Proterozoic to the Holocene, without the most recent developments.
Dinosaur Extinction
A surprisingly deep resource, this set of pages from Enchanted Learning's Zoom School gets well into the science without making it ponderous.
Dinosaur Extinction: The Volcano-Greenhouse Theory
Dewey McLean, an early and untiring opponent of the impact theory, has his say here, along with comments on the unfair role of the scientific press.
Early Jurassic Extinction
This mysterious extinction event is discussed at the end of this class lecture from Columbia University.
Extinctions Due to Impacts, Past and Future
A 1996 presentation by NASA scientist Owen Toon sums up the physicist's viewpoint. Lots of damage estimates and frequency estimates, nothing about the fossil record.
Flood Basalts, Mantle Plumes and Mass Extinctions
Steven Self and Mike Rampino briefly present the eruption hypothesis of mass extinction on the Geological Society's website.
Mass Extinction Underway
David Ulansey raises a hue and cry on this page, a long list of links documenting the current wave of human-caused extinctions.
A Model of Mass Extinction
A paper from a Santa Fe Institute researcher shoots down the theory that mass extinctions just happen due to "coevolutionary avalanches."
What Killed the Dinosaurs?
A thorough, even-handed treatment of the question from the University of California Museum of Paleontology.