From the author of The End of Evolution and On Methuselah's Trail this book recreates, in dramatic and colourful language, the global environment of the end of the last great Ice Age. The last of the great wholly mammoths existed on Wrangel Island thousands of years after their extinction elsewhere on Earth. Ward examines competing theories about the courses of the great extinction and considers in detail the role of human settlements on these events. An engaging exploration of the history of life and the importance of humanity as an evolutionary force.