| Geologic Time Chart | |
| Prologue | |
| Ch. 1 | Extinctions Are for Real | 1 |
| Ch. 2 | Santa Rosalia, or Why Are There So Many Kinds of Living Things? | 21 |
| Ch. 3 | Biotic Armageddon: Deja Vu Over and Over Again | 49 |
| Ch. 4 | Patterns and Clues in Paleozoic Mass Extinctions | 79 |
| Ch. 5 | Extinction, and the Rise and Vicissitudes of Modern Life | 99 |
| Ch. 6 | Without a Helping Hand: Causes of Mass Extinctions in the Geological Past | 131 |
| Ch. 7 | The Ice Man Cometh: Climate Change, Human Action, and the Great Pleistocene Extinctions | 171 |
| Ch. 8 | The Canary's Song: Land Use, Habitat Reduction, and Extinction | 209 |
| Annotated Bibliography and Suggested Readings | 231 |
| Index | 237 |
