
When Humans Nearly Vanished
The Catastrophic Explosion of the Toba Volcano
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Narrated by:
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Qarie Marshall
About this listen
Some 73,000 years ago, the Mount Toba supervolcano in toda's Indonesia erupted, releasing the energy of a million tons of explosives. So much ash and debris was injected into the stratosphere that it partially blocked the sun's radiation and caused global temperatures to drop for a decade.
In this book, Donald R. Prothero presents the controversial argument that the Toba catastrophe nearly wiped out the human race, leaving only about a thousand to ten thousand breeding pairs of humans worldwide. Human genes today show evidence of a "genetic bottleneck", an effect seen when a population of organisms becomes so small that their genetic diversity is greatly reduced. This group of survivors could be the ancestors of all humans alive today.
Prothero explores the geological and biological evidence supporting the Toba bottleneck theory, revealing how the explosion itself was discovered and offering insight into how the world changed afterward and what might happen if such an eruption occurred today.
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Story
For 2,500 years, the Celts have continued to fascinate those who have come into contact with them, yet their origins have remained a mystery and even today are the subject of heated debate among historians and archaeologists. Barry Cunliffe's classic study of the ancient Celtic world was first published in 1997. Since then, huge advances have taken place in our knowledge: new finds, new ways of using DNA records to understand Celtic origins, new ideas about the proto-urban nature of early chieftains' strongholds. All these developments are part of this fully updated edition.
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Missing the foundation and migration from the steppe and the Tuatha Dé Dannan
- By cpdb on 03-15-20
By: Barry Cunliffe
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The Story of Earth's Climate in 25 Discoveries
- How Scientists Found the Connections between Climate and Life
- By: Donald R. Prothero
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In this entertaining book, Donald R. Prothero explores the astonishing connections between climate and life through the ages, telling the remarkable stories of the scientists who made crucial discoveries. Journeying through the intertwined evolution of climate and life, he tackles questions such as: Why do we have phytoplankton to thank for the air we breathe? What kind of climate was necessary for the rise of the dinosaurs-or the mammals, their successors? When and how have climatic changes caused mass extinctions?
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Excellent
- By Jette on 10-02-24
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1177 B.C. (Revised and Updated)
- The Year Civilization Collapsed
- By: Eric H. Cline
- Narrated by: Eric H. Cline
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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This audiobook narrated by acclaimed archaeologist and best-selling author Eric Cline offers a breathtaking account of how the collapse of an ancient civilized world ushered in the first Dark Ages.
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Look past the one-star reviews: this is an enlightening and engaging read.
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-07-22
By: Eric H. Cline
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Extinctions
- How Life Survives, Adapts and Evolves
- By: Michael J. Benton
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Cutting-edge techniques across biology, chemistry, physics, and geology have transformed our understanding of the deep past, including the discovery of a previously unknown mass extinction. This compelling evidence, revealing a series of environmental crises resulting in the near collapse of life on Earth, illuminates our current dilemmas in exquisite detail.
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Gets better as you go
- By Texas Mama on 01-31-25
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The World Before Us
- The New Science Behind Our Human Origins
- By: Tom Higham
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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A fascinating investigation of the origin of humans based on incredible new discoveries and advanced scientific technology.
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Wonderfully Accessible
- By Deborah N on 11-02-21
By: Tom Higham
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A Brief History of Earth
- Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters
- By: Andrew H. Knoll
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on his decades of field research and up-to-the-minute understanding of the latest science, renowned geologist Andrew H. Knoll delivers a rigorous yet accessible biography of Earth, charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion-year story. Placing 21st-century climate change in deep context, A Brief History of Earth is an indispensable look at where we’ve been and where we’re going.
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Very chilling and well thought out
- By Colin Bump on 05-21-21
By: Andrew H. Knoll
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The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks
- Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them
- By: Donald R. Prothero
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks tells the fascinating stories behind the discoveries that shook the foundations of geology. In 25 chapters, Donald R. Prothero recounts the scientific detective work that shaped our understanding of geology, from the unearthing of exemplary specimens to tectonic shifts in how we view the inner workings of our planet.
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More about scientists than science
- By Aunt Vee on 06-14-20
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Wonderful Life
- The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
- By: Stephen Jay Gould
- Narrated by: Jonathan Sleep
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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High in the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. It holds the remains of an ancient sea where dozens of strange creatures lived—a forgotten corner of evolution preserved in awesome detail. In this book, Stephen Jay Gould explores what the Burgess Shale tells us about evolution and the nature of history.
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Science made interesting
- By An Old Crow on 09-13-23
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The Sixth Extinction
- An Unnatural History
- By: Elizabeth Kolbert
- Narrated by: Anne Twomey
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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A major audiobook about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes. Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on Earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.
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Lifts you out of the ordinary
- By Regina on 04-28-14
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Homo Sapiens Rediscovered
- The Scientific Revolution Rewriting Our Origins
- By: Paul Pettitt
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Who are we? How do scientists define Homo sapiens, and how does our species differ from the extinct hominins that came before us? In this accessible account palaeoarchaeologist Paul Pettitt shows how the latest scientific advances, especially in genetics, are revolutionizing our understanding of human evolution. Pettitt reveals the extraordinary story of how our ancestors adapted to unforgiving and relentlessly changing climates, leading to remarkable innovations in art, technology, and society that we are only now beginning to comprehend.
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Current and Relevant
- By Amazon Customer on 11-16-23
By: Paul Pettitt
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The Lost City of the Monkey God
- A True Story
- By: Douglas Preston
- Narrated by: Bill Mumy
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die.
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Still Lost...
- By Mel on 01-12-17
By: Douglas Preston
Excellent
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excellent
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Alright
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Generally disappointed
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and mass extinctions boring. Even worse, after slogging through the pages and pages of scientific fluff, you are still not giving a concrete answer or even theory. Right around chapter three somewhere, when I was slogging through X-ray crystallography, molecular structures of DNA, and how Dr. Rosalind Franklin was robbed by the patriarchy, I was starting to think that perhaps he just put a volcano on the cover of the book to sex it up a little. I am now much more intimate with the archeological finds of homo erectus than I ever wanted to be while reading about a volcano.
Mountains of information, none about the subject
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Mostly filler
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I almost quit
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Outstanding presentation!
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A great book!
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Not what I expected, even better.
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