The end of evolution

by Peter Douglas Ward

The crystal-clear waters of the Philippine archipelago, eerily empty of sea life...a lush Hawaiian paradise now the scene of devastating depopulation and extinction...the mighty Columbia River, stripped of its once abundant salmon, now an empty series of damned lakes...wolves, at one time numbering more than 2 million in the continental United States, now dwindled to perhaps 2,000. Twice in the distant past, catastrophic extinctions have swept the earth, causing the "end" of evolution for certain creatures and the beginning for others. The first occurred 250 million years ago and marked the destruction of 90 percent of all living creatures - and the survival of our first mammalian ancestors. The second great mass extinction took place 65 million years ago and 50 percent of all species - including the last of the dinosaurs - perished in a cataclysm that may have been caused in part by the earth's collision with an asteroid. Now Peter Ward, on a journey that traverses continents and trav