Paleontologists Prothero and Raup accuse evolutionary biologists of being ignorant of the causes of extinction. Let's do some fact-checking!

"Textbooks of evolutionary biology contain little about extinction beyond a few platitudes and tautologies like "species go extinct when they are unable to cope with change" (Raup). ... "When extinction is discussed at all, it is usually in strict Darwinian terms: organisms become extinct because they fail to adapt to new circumstances. ... Rarely can we find geological evidence that establishes a cause for that extinction." (Prothero [1])

 
Is this really true? Note that Raup and Prothero do not give references! That is suspicious. There is only one way to find out: fact-checking! I happen to have some evolution textbooks on my bookshelf. So, here we go.

Scott Freeman, Jon C. Herron (2006) 'Evolutionary Analysis (4th Edition)'

In Part IV 'The History of Life' chapter 18 there is a section 18.4 'Mass Extinctions' the authors write: "Why do mass extinctions occur? The short answer is that they result from short-term, catastrophic episodes of environmental change." (page 712). Indeed, this looks like the meaningless explanation Raup and Prothero were referring to, but ... Freeman and Herron continue right after this passage with a detailed description of several evidences for the asteroid impact hypothesis as a cause of the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction. Raup is present in the Citations list with 3 publications! So, in this case Raup and Prothero are wrong.

Douglas J. Futuyma (2005) 'Evolution'. 

In chapter 7 'The evolution of biodiversity', there is a paragraph 'Causes of mass extinction'. Futuyma wrote "Biologists agree that extinction is caused by the failure to adapt to changes in the environment" (page 146). 

Indeed, this looks indeed like a rather unhelpful tautological statement. But here Futuyma is talking about extinctions in our own times because his examples are: predators, diseases, and competitors. These are mostly recent extinctions. However, on page 148 Futuyma discusses 'Mass extinctions' and a short paragraph 'Causes of Mass Extinctions'. Among them the famous K/T mass extinction. Evolutionary biologist Futuyma list two publications of paleontologist Raup (1972), (1982). This proves that Futuyma read the paleontological literature. The same attention to the fossil record is present in Fuutyma (1998). So, Raup and Prothero are guilty of selective quotation in this case.

 

 

Stephen Stearns and Rolf Hoekstra (2005) 'Evolution, an introduction'

This evolution textbook was published nearly 20 years before Prothero (2024). Relevant is Part 4 'The History of Life' with 3 chapters (total 83 page). In the excellent chapter 16 'Major events in the geological theater', the evolution of life is placed in its planetary and historical context: How has the planet shaped life? Mass extinctions are discussed and their possible causes are discussed (page 390 - 396), including meteorite impact, glaciation, volcanic outbreaks. This is a very good example of how an evolution textbook should be. Highly recommended. I will write a future blog about this book. The only criticism I have is that 'The History of Life' is not placed right at the beginning. First things first! I must conclude again that Prothero's claim is completely false.

N. Barton, D. Briggs, J. Eisen, D. Goldstein, N. Patel (2007) 'Evolution'. 

This book has a strong emphasis on genetics and molecular genetics. The authors discuss 'Extinctions' on page 281 in chapter 10 'Diversification of Plants and Animals' (33 pages of 833 pages book). Note that the subject of this chapter is usually called 'The History of Life'. Causes of extinctions are mentioned (anoxic oceans, asteroid impact, volcanic eruptions, CO2, methane). Species cannot adapt to asteroid impacts (!) but some taxa are hit harder than others. Why? A final paragraph 'Modern extinctions'. By the way, there is an intriguing display method of the 4,5 billion years of the history of the earth (inside of the cover), but still not intuitively clear at first sight. Again, Prothero is wrong.

Mark Ridley (2004) 'Evolution. Third edition'.

Two relevant chapters are chapter 18 'The History of Life' and chapter 23 'Extinction and Radiation'. Chapter 23 contains everything the student may want to know about Extinctions, Mass Extinctions, Causes and consequences of extinctions.

Douglas J. Emlen, Carl Zimmer (2019, 2020) 'Evolution. Making Sense of Life', Third edition.

In Chapter 14 'Macroevolution' there are paragraphs: 14.2 'The Drivers of Macroevolution: Speciation and Extinction'; 14.4 'The Drivers of Macroevolution: Changing Environments'; 14.8 'Extinctions: From Background Noise to Mass Die-Offs'; 14.9 'The Causes of Mass Extinctions'! The last paragraph gives a detailed discussion of the causes of mass extinctions and helpful illustrations. 

In his earlier evolution textbook, The Tangled Bank (2009), chapter 10 'Radiations and Extinctions', Zimmer discusses what paleontologists have discovered about background and mass extinctions and their causes. Additionally, the most recent mass extinction causes by humans is discussed. No simplistic tautologies about extinction. Prothero wrong again.

Eli C. Minkoff (1983,1984) 'Evolutionary Biology'.
This evolution textbook, now 40 years old, the oldest one I have at home, has a chapter 20 called 'Extinction and Its Causes'. Four groups of causes are discussed: climatic, tectonic, biological, extraterrestrial. Of course his discussion is based upon the knowledge of the time. By the way: I see a weird topic: 'Programmed extinction': "this belief is part of a larger view that evolution as a whole is internally programmed and relatively unaffected by vicissitudes of environmental change." (page 335). One cannot find these teleological ideas in contemporary textbooks anymore. Again, Prothero is wrong.

 

Carl T. Bergstrom, Lee Alan Dugatkin (2023) 'Evolution. Third edition'.
This is to my knowledge the most recent evolution textbook. Chapter 15: 'Extinction and Evolutionary Trends' (39 pages). The asteroid impact, Chicxulub crater, iridium and all aspects of extinction are discussed. Please note: Prothero (2003) is quoted (!) on page 536, and Raup is quoted four times (!), so both paleontologists are definitely not ignored! Background versus Mass extinction are discussed and illustrated in detail. "Background extinctions can have a number of causes, including predation, competition, disease, and climate change." (page 541). I can't find the simplistic and tautological explanations for extinction that Raup and Prothero claim to exist in evolution textbooks.

 

John Maynard Smith (1993,1997) The Theory of Evolution. Canto paperback.

This is paperback introduction to the theory of evolution of the famous evolutionary biologists John Maynard Smith. He is well aware of 'easy' and 'difficult' explanations of extinctions: 

"It is easy enough to state the general truth that changes in the environment, ... made the way of life characteristic of such groups no longer possible. It is much more difficult to give more precise reasons in any particular case ..." (page 295).

The 'easy' explanation would correspond to a tautology, but JMS adds the difficult explanation. Again,  I can't find any evidence of simplistic explanations.

 

Conclusion

Paleontologist Donald Prothero (and indirectly a quote of paleonotologist David Raup) made unsubstantiated claims about evolutionary biologists who would have given simplistic explanations of the cause of mass extinctions. They did not give any quotes. I have checked 10 evolution textbooks and couldn't find simplistic explanations. Conclusion: Prothero and Raup are wrong. Evolutionary biologists don't ignore the research of paleontologists in their textbooks.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed by Prothero's attitude towards evolutionary biologists. I didn't finish reading his book. I tried this book because I am interested in a good popular book about the history of the climate on our planet [2]. I read an earlier work of Prothero, 'Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters' (2007, 2017), which is a useful popular science book. Prothero has also written 'Reality Check: How Science Deniers Threaten Our Future'. (haven't read yet, apparently overlooked it, will add it to my Introduction page.).

Sources

1. Donald R. Prothero (2024). 'The Story of Earth's Climate in 25 Discoveries: How Scientists Found the Connections Between Climate and Life', Columbia University Press.
2. An alternative is: Tim Lenton (2016) 'Earth System Science: A Very Short Introduction'. 153 pages. I am reading it right now.