Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions
E533982
*Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions* is a scientific book by geologist Anthony Hallam that examines the geological and biological evidence behind major extinction events in Earth's history.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5613092 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions Context triple: [Anthony Hallam, notableWork, Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions]
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A.
Phanerozoic mass extinctions
Phanerozoic mass extinctions are the handful of catastrophic, globally disruptive biodiversity crises over the last ~540 million years that abruptly wiped out large proportions of Earth’s species and reshaped the course of evolution.
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B.
Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearance of Species
Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearance of Species is an influential environmental science book examining the drivers, scale, and implications of modern species loss for ecosystems and humanity.
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C.
Late Ordovician mass extinction
The Late Ordovician mass extinction was one of Earth’s largest biodiversity crises, during which severe climate change and glaciation led to the rapid loss of a substantial portion of marine species.
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D.
On the Imperfection of the Geological Record
"On the Imperfection of the Geological Record" is a chapter in Charles Darwin's *On the Origin of Species* that addresses why the fossil record is incomplete and how this affects evidence for evolutionary change.
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E.
Carboniferous rainforest collapse
The Carboniferous rainforest collapse was a mass extinction and fragmentation event of vast tropical coal-forest ecosystems around 305 million years ago, profoundly reshaping terrestrial biodiversity and climate in the late Paleozoic.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions Target entity description: *Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions* is a scientific book by geologist Anthony Hallam that examines the geological and biological evidence behind major extinction events in Earth's history.
-
A.
Phanerozoic mass extinctions
Phanerozoic mass extinctions are the handful of catastrophic, globally disruptive biodiversity crises over the last ~540 million years that abruptly wiped out large proportions of Earth’s species and reshaped the course of evolution.
-
B.
Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearance of Species
Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearance of Species is an influential environmental science book examining the drivers, scale, and implications of modern species loss for ecosystems and humanity.
-
C.
Late Ordovician mass extinction
The Late Ordovician mass extinction was one of Earth’s largest biodiversity crises, during which severe climate change and glaciation led to the rapid loss of a substantial portion of marine species.
-
D.
On the Imperfection of the Geological Record
"On the Imperfection of the Geological Record" is a chapter in Charles Darwin's *On the Origin of Species* that addresses why the fossil record is incomplete and how this affects evidence for evolutionary change.
-
E.
Carboniferous rainforest collapse
The Carboniferous rainforest collapse was a mass extinction and fragmentation event of vast tropical coal-forest ecosystems around 305 million years ago, profoundly reshaping terrestrial biodiversity and climate in the late Paleozoic.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (40)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
person ⓘ |
| author | Anthony Hallam ⓘ |
| authorOccupation | geologist ⓘ |
| discusses |
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
ⓘ
linked to:
Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary
Permian–Triassic extinction event ⓘ
linked to:
Permian–Triassic mass extinction
catastrophism in geology ⓘ gradualism versus catastrophism ⓘ mass extinction mechanisms ⓘ |
| examines |
catastrophic events in Earth’s past
ⓘ
lesser extinction events ⓘ major extinction events in Earth history ⓘ patterns of biodiversity loss ⓘ |
| field | Earth sciences ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
biological evidence for extinction events
ⓘ
causes of mass extinctions ⓘ geological evidence for extinction events ⓘ |
| genre |
Earth science literature
ⓘ
paleontology literature ⓘ science ⓘ |
| hasPerspective |
evaluation of competing extinction hypotheses
ⓘ
historical overview of extinction research ⓘ |
| intendedAudience |
general science readers
ⓘ
students of geology ⓘ students of paleontology ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
Earth history
ⓘ
extinction event ⓘ fossil record ⓘ geology ⓘ mass extinction ⓘ paleontology ⓘ |
| notableWork | Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions ⓘ |
| occupation | geologist ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Earth’s biosphere evolution
ⓘ
environmental change in deep time ⓘ mass extinction debate ⓘ |
| usesEvidence |
biostratigraphy
ⓘ
fossil distribution patterns ⓘ geological strata ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions Description of subject: *Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions* is a scientific book by geologist Anthony Hallam that examines the geological and biological evidence behind major extinction events in Earth's history.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Catastrophes and Lesser Calamities: The Causes of Mass Extinctions