Peter Ward (paleontologist)
Peter Douglas Ward ( born 1949 ) is an American paleontologist and professor of biology, earth and space sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. In addition, he is the author of popular science works.
Life and work
Peter Ward primary research interests are the mass extinction of Earth's history with an emphasis on the KT impact event. He is also an associate professor of zoology and astronomy. He published books on biodiversity and fossilization. His 1992 book published On Methuselah 's Trail was honored by the Paleontological Society with a " Golden Trilobite Award " for the best popular science book of the year.
Ward's academic career includes professorships at Ohio State University, the NASA Astrobiology Institute, the University of Calgary and the California Institute of Technology and local teaching jobs. 1984 was elected a member of the California Academy of Sciences.
In addition to the astronomer Donald Brownlee, he is co -author of the best-selling book published in 2000 Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe. In this book, the authors argue that the universe is inherently hostile to higher life and thus the probability of life forms such as those on the earth is extremely low, but could occur whereas simple life often.
In his book Under a Green Sky in April 2007, he argued that all mass extinctions were caused by the KT impact of climate change - including the current in the wake of global warming. He calls it to say that the events of the past could provide important information for the future of our planet. The reviewer Doug Brown summed this drastic with the words "this is how the world ends" together.
He also appeared on television in the PBS series " Evolution Series " to discuss the evidence for evolution through fossils, and on NOVA ScienceNOW.
Medea Hypothesis
Peter Ward coined the term Medea hypothesis for an alternative hypothesis to the Gaia hypothesis, postulating that the they accept as superorganism Community multicellular life is inherently self-destructive and non- self-sustaining, as alleged in the Gaia hypothesis. Multicellular life therefore delete from very likely itself and life on Earth would fall back into a state of microbial life, as it was for most of the history of the Earth normal.
Past attempts self-destruction of life are in his view the methane crisis before 3.7 billion years ago, the Great Disaster oxygen 2.5 billion years ago, two Snowball Earth events before 2.3 billion and 790-630 million years ago and at least five hydrogen sulphide induced mass extinctions, such as the mass extinction at the Permian - Triassic boundary in front of 251 400 000 years.