Have you seen a dodo bird recently? Do you have mastodons playing in your back yard? Not likely-- these species are extinct! In Earth's 4.5 billion-year history, more than 5 billion species have gone extinct, some of them at the same time. In EXTINCTION: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DINOSAURS, MASTODONS, AND DODO BIRDS? kids ages 9 to 12 learn about the detective work scientists perform to find out why mass extinctions happen...Try these hands-on STEM projects!...

"Over the last half-billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. Adapting from her New York Times-bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning adult nonfiction, Elizabeth Kolbert explores the Anthropocene...

From the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe, a powerful and important work about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a compelling account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes. "Starred Review"--Publishers Weekly

A prominent science writer, traveling to rain forests, canyons, craters, and caves all over the world to explore the potential winners and losers of the next era of evolution, describes what life on earth could look like after the next mass extinction.