Mark McMenamin is a Professor of Geology at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Whether he’s teaching an introductory course on the History of Life or embarking on an archeological expedition, geologist and paleontologist Mark McMenamin maintains a spirit of discovery. In 1994, he introduced the theory that life forms that moved from the sea to the land diversified to a far greater extent than marine life did. Explained in Hypersea: Life on Land, the “hypersea” theory was called one of “seven ideas that could change the world” by Discover magazine.
On other fronts, McMenamin presented groundbreaking evidence that mariners of ancient Carthage made it to America long before Eriksson and Columbus, some time around 350 BC. And in 1997 he edited an annotated edition of The Biosphere, the paradigm-shifting work of Russian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945) who led development of the field of biogeochemistry and the concept that living things are intricately connected to the lithosphere and atmosphere, and have molded planet earth into a blue-green planet over the past 3.5 billion years.