The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

understanding topics in climate science and marine chemistry. I am
deeply indebted to him and to his wife, Lilian, and to the whole team I met
at One Tree: Jack Silverman, Kenny Schneider, Tanya Rivlin, Jen Reiffel,
and the inimitable Russell Graham. Thanks also to Davey Kline, Brad
Opdyke, Selina Ward, and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg.
Miles Silman was an extraordinary guide to an extraordinary part of
the world. I can’t thank him enough for sharing so much of his time and
his knowledge. I’d also like to express my gratitude to his doctoral
students, William Farfan Rios and Karina Garcia Cabrera. Many thanks,
too, to Chris Thomas.
This book might never even have been attempted without the help of
Tom Lovejoy. His generosity and patience are, as far as I can tell,
boundless, and I am deeply grateful to him for his assistance and his
encouragement. Mario Cohn-Haft was an expert and wonderfully good-
humored guide to the Amazon rainforest. I also want to thank Rita
Mesquita, José Luís Camargo, Gustavo Fonseca, and Virgilio Viana.
Scott Darling and Al Hicks were among the very first people to
appreciate the seriousness of white-nose syndrome. They shared with me
what they were learning as they were learning it and helped me
enormously. Ryan Smith, Susi von Oettingen, and Alyssa Bennett were
kind enough to keep taking me back up to Aeolus. Joe Roman generously
read and commented on the section of the book on invasive species.
Terri Roth and Chris Johnson helped me to understand megafauna,
past and present. A special thanks to John Alroy for his calculations on
extinction rates, and thanks, too, to Anthony Barnosky.
Svante Pääbo spent many hours explaining to me the complexities of
paleogenetics in general and of the Neanderthal Genome Project in
particular. I want to thank him as well as Shannon McPherron, who
graciously showed me around La Ferrassie, and Ed Green, who was always
willing to answer one last question.
Marlys Houck, Oliver Ryder, Barbara Durrant, and Jenny Mehlow were
very generous to me when I visited San Diego.