Inside the surprising and numerous mass extinctions in our planet’s history.
Instant Genius is a bite-sized masterclass in podcast form. And in this episode, we’re exploring mass extinctions.
Most of us are aware that an asteroid strike led to the extinction of the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago. But fewer are aware that this was just one of several mass extinction events to have occurred throughout the Earth’s history.
In this episode, we speak to Prof Michael Benton, a palaeontologist based at the University of Bristol and author of the new book Extinctions: How Life Survives, Adapts and Evolves.
He tells us all about the previous extinctions that have changed the balance of life on Earth, how they happened and what we can learn about the future of the planet by studying them.
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