Extinctions in the History of Life is a collection of concise and clear essays intended to introduce students of biology and geology to the central issues of extinction. Contributors include Paul D. Taylor on extinction and the fossil record, J. William Schopf on extinctions in life's earliest history, Scott L. Wing on mass extinctions in plant evolution, David J. Bottjer on the beginning of the Mesozoic, Paul B. Wignall on causes of mass extinctions, and David Jablonski on the evolutionary role of mass extinctions. The reviewer for the Journal of Paleolimnology praised it as "a valuable summary and a benchmark for future reading."