Abstract
Extinction is currently receiving more intense scientific scrutiny than at any time since Cuvier (1812) established its empirical reality in his Discours sur les Révolutions de la Surface du Globe. The reasons for this heightened interest are fairly clear and appear to me to be twofold: environmental concerns over mounting species loss have increased, albeit sporadically, as the twentieth century has progressed. With the millennium now fast approaching, the next episode of mass extinction, this time human induced, is fast upon us. We simply can no longer afford not to focus on extinction.
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Eldredge, N. (1997). Extinction and the Evolutionary Process. In: Abe, T., Levin, S.A., Higashi, M. (eds) Biodiversity. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1906-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1906-4_5
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