Earth's Great Extinctions

De: Rachel Phillips, The Great Courses

Narrado por: Rachel Phillips

Approximately 66 million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth, triggering a chain of events that would end the reign of the dinosaurs and usher in the age of mammals. Despite its colossal scale, this incident was not the only event of its kind—in fact, it wasn’t even the first. Rather, it’s only the most recent mass extinction our planet has witnessed across its 4-billion-year lifespan. In the last 500 million years alone, the Earth has experienced five major extinction events, each of which dramatically altered the planet and left a trail of fascinating geological evidence for us to uncover.

In the six lectures of Earth’s Great Extinctions, geologist Rachel Phillips digs deep into these mass extinction events, known as the “Big Five,” utilizing the fossil record to explore what caused them, how life recovered after each one, and what they can teach us about modern climate change and extinctions. From the ice age of the Ordovician period to the “Great Dying” of the Permian extinction to the climate catastrophe that ended the dinosaurs, you’ll explore the many factors that led to these events and what they can tell us about Earth in both the past and the present.

There is a growing scientific consensus that we are in the early stages of a sixth mass extinction. While the changes the planet is undergoing are human-driven, the ultimate causes—global temperature change, sea-level change, desertification, and other impacts—are not so different from the mass extinctions of the past. Better understanding how and why these catastrophic events occurred is not just an exercise in exploring the past, but a crucial step in determining our own future.

©2026 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2026 Audible Originals, LLC.

Another Great Course from Audible

All the Great Courses audiobooks are only available at Audible.  The Great Courses company itself only offers videos of their courses. In addition, Audible offers courses on subject matter that is a bit off the "beaten path," and these courses are normally 6 to 8 lectures in length.
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I've listened to several of these shorter courses and I am a fan. The subject matter is interesting and are high quality narrations. This is one of those courses

The presenter is highly qualified on the subject matter. She is knowledgeable and a great presenter. 
There have been 5 mass Extinctions over the past 500 million years. All of them had common causes even though the triggers varied.  She makes a compelling case that humans are creating the 6th mass extinction by their conduct. It may or may not be corrected. It is up to us.

Everyone who lives on this planet should listen to this book.

Everyone who lives on this planet should listen to this book. we still seem to have a little bit of time to change how we are choosing to destroy this beautiful planet we live on. Come on fellow humans we can do it I know we can. We are smart enough. we fixed what we were doing to the whole in the ozone layers. Let's fix this..

Disappointed

Started out, like most in these series, as a very fact oriented and serious group of lectures. However, it soon developed into a rather pathetic re-hashing and almost every fake alarmist in existence. If the presenter wants to appear authentic, at least be original.

unscientific opinion based presentation unfortunately

Opionated, rather than fact based presentation. Was hoping for a factual, general knowledge of our planet's past, but was subjected to a bachelor's level geography 101 political speech. Opportunity lost.
Presenter had a nice delivery.

decent data wrapped in a massive fear mongering climate alarmist box

The propaganda on display would make anyone outside paid academy blush. I get that people need to get grants and the biggest providers of grants, by far comes from the climate change lobby. But give it a rest for a few minutes at least.

Based on this info, nothing causes significant extinction outside of climate change. Even if that change takes millions or tens of millions of years.

Seriously?