Peter Brannen

Five times our world has stood on the brink of Armageddon. It's been scorched, frozen, poison-gassed, smothered and pelted by asteroids. We are very lucky to be alive... Over the past decade there has been a revolution in our understanding of global apocalypses. Armed with new technology, scientists have uncovered a myriad of clues in the fossil record about what caused these catastrophes - a record rife with weird and wonderful creatures like dragonflies the size of seagulls and fishes with guillotines for mouths. Diving into deep time, The Ends of the World reveals how these near extinctions gave rise to our modern world and gives us a terrifying glimpse of what may lie ahead.

Apocalypse, now? Death by fire, ice, poison gas, suffocation, asteroid. At five moments through history life on Earth was dragged to the very edge of extinction. Now, armed with revolutionary technology, scientists are uncovering clues about what caused these catastrophes. Deep-diving into past worlds of dragonflies the size of seagulls and fishes with guillotines for mouths, they explore how - against all the odds - life survived and what these ominous chapters can tell us about our future.