• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

The Largest Extinction Event In Earth’s History Occurred 250 Million Years Ago

November 9, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Earth is no stranger to mass extinction events – it’s had five so far, and some scientists have even claimed we’re in the midst of a sixth. The biggest one of all, however, was so hugely devastating to life on Earth that it’s been nicknamed the “Great Dying”.

The Permian-Triassic extinction event

If you thought the mass extinction caused by the Chicxulub asteroid impact 65 million years ago was bad, think again. Travel back in time even further to around 250 million years ago, and the Great Dying – more formally known as the Permian-Triassic extinction event – wiped out members of all classes of life.

Advertisement

Over 95 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species died out during the extinction. In total, around 90 percent of all species on Earth at the time were completely eradicated. Though there’s some debate as to the exact length of time over which this took place, there’s no question that it wouldn’t have been a fun time to be on the planet.

The reason that scientists are able to tell all this happened is because of the fossil record. Imagine you take a slice through sedimentary rock that was built up over the course of the late Permian through to the early Triassic; the Great Dying can be marked by a sudden, sharp decline in the diversity of fossils.

What caused the Great Dying?

Of course, such widespread death doesn’t happen for no reason – but for a long time, scientists have had trouble figuring out exactly what triggered the event. Some have suggested an asteroid impact, while others have proposed a huge volcanic eruption altered the climate or a combination of factors.

In 2014, a team of researchers from MIT put forth that the rise of methane-producing microbes may have been to blame. After studying sediments from South China, they concluded that Methanosarcina began to thrive towards the end of the Permian period; that meant more methane, which was converted into carbon dioxide, which in turn contributed to levels of global warming and ocean acidification capable of causing widespread extinction.

Advertisement

More recent research leans into the “combination of factors” theory – specifically, that the climate warming effects of volcanic eruptions were exacerbated on land by so-called mega El Niño events.

“During the Permian-Triassic crisis, El Niño persisted for much longer resulting in a decade of widespread drought, followed by years of flooding. Basically, the climate was all over the place,” said study author Professor Paul Wignall in a statement.

“Most life failed to adapt to these conditions,” added co-author Professor Yadong Sun, “but thankfully a few things survived, without which we wouldn’t be here today. It was nearly, but not quite, the end of the life on Earth.”

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Cricket-Manchester test likely to be postponed after India COVID-19 case
  2. EU to attend U.S. trade meeting put in doubt by French anger
  3. Soccer-West Ham win again, Leicester and Napoli falter
  4. Was Jesus A Hallucinogenic Mushroom? One Scholar Certainly Thought So

Source Link: The Largest Extinction Event In Earth's History Occurred 250 Million Years Ago

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Man Broke Down Wall In His Basement And Discovered An Ancient Underground City That Once Housed 20,000 People
  • Same-Sex Penguin Couple Adopt And Raise Chick – And They’ve All Got 10/10 Names
  • Dolphins May Not “See” With Echolocation, But Instead “Feel” With It
  • Confirmed! Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Indeed An Interstellar Visitor, Quite Different From Its Predecessors
  • At 192, Jonathan – The Oldest Living Land Animal – Has Lived Through 40 US Presidents
  • 300,000-Year-Old Wooden Tools “Made By Denisovans” Discovered In China
  • Why Do Cats Eyes Glow? For The Same Reason Great White Sharks’ Do, Silly
  • G-astronomical News: Michelin-Starred Meal To Be Served On The ISS
  • In 2032, Earth May Witness A Once-In-5,000-Year Event On The Moon
  • Brand New Microscope Designed For Underwater Reveals Stunning Details Of Corals
  • The Atlantic’s Major Circulation Current Is Showing Worrying Signs, But Is Collapse Near?
  • “The Rings Held The Answer”: How We Finally Figured Out Saturn’s Day Length In 2019
  • Mystery Of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” Solved By A Dentist And A Protractor
  • Asteroid Ryugu’s Latest Mineral Is As Weird As Finding “A Tropical Seed In The Arctic”
  • IFLScience The Big Questions: Are We Living Through A Sixth Mass Extinction?
  • Alien Abduction Or A Trick Of The Mind? A Down To Earth Explanation Of Close Encounters
  • Six Months Into Trump’s Presidency, Americans Report Record Low Pride In Being American
  • TikToker Unknowingly Handles Extremely Venomous Cone Snail And Lives To Tell The Tale
  • Scientists Sequence Oldest Egyptian DNA To Date, From A Whopping 4,800 Years Ago
  • “Uncharted Waters”: Large Hadron Collider Begins Colliding Oxygen For The First Time
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version