Extinction: Our Fragile Relationship with Life on Earth

Extinction explores endangered and extinct species and the factors threatening them through a behind-the-scenes lens on one of the most important sets of natural history collections in the world, at the Field Museum in Chicago.

Author Marc Schlossman combines unique photographs of specimens from the Field Museum in Chicago with informative and insightful text about the species themselves, reasons for decline, and the conservation efforts in place to prevent further extinction.

The specimens revealed in this book are not on public display and the only way to see many of them is through these photographs, the result of ten years cataloguing key species from the museums zoology and botany collections. The images lead the reader to the species stories, promoting a greater understanding of mankinds stewardship of life on Earth at a critical time in history.

Extinction illustrates the crucial importance of museum collections for conservation, education, and research.
The book has been designed to have pages with black backgrounds for extinct species and white backgrounds for species nearing extinction. A yellow flag highlights conservation successes, which are interspersed throughout. The conservation success stories highlight the positive work that is happening and the potential there is to prevent the extinction of these and other species.