Essay On Permian Mass Extinction

“A minority disputes this theory, arguing that other events-such as volcanic eruptions, sea-level changes or a series of impacts-were to blame for the spectacular loss of species that occurred at the transition between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods…”

8. The periods in which there were mass extinctions are Permian – volcanic eruptions which spewed lava and put CO2 into the air which warmed the climate an estimated 6 degrees Celsius. The resulting of oxygen deficiency. And Cretaceous – asteroid or comet

Shifting from the end of the Permian period 250 million years ago into the next era, the Triassic period occurred between 250 and 199 million years ago and was know for further diversifying life on land. After the Permian period, the Triassic period was largely successful in adapting and evolving, as the world was going through many changes. The land mass known as Pangea began its separation, which would be completed in the Jurassic period. The climate was relatively more severe during this time, with hotter summers and colder winters, but because of the warmer atmosphere, there were no polar ice caps at this time. Towards the center of Pangea, it was mostly a dry desert climate. As for life on earth, most of the marine life had been wiped

The ecological conditions might have changed quickly and the species was not able to adapt to those conditions, which eventually lead the species to go extinct.

<b>Introduction</b><br>Think of a world which existed 290 million years ago. As you look out over the terane in front of you, you think that you are on an alien planet. You see volcanoes spewing ash and lava. Beside them is the ocean which is swarming with many different species of echinoderms, bryozoans and brachiopods. As you look down onto the sea floor you are amazed at the countless number of starfish and urchins. Some animals leave you can't even describe and you have no idea even what phylum they belong to. This is a world at its height in diversity of oceanic species. Millions of wonderous species existed at this time in the ocean and most of them will never appear again in earth's history. In the geologic time scale, a million

Just the fact that the Pope has ignored the warnings of Catholic presidential candidates and is trying to fight climate change is monumental. Global warming is a global issue. No matter what religion or ethnicity global warming will affect everyone. Earth is the only known planet capable of supporting life. How embarrassing will it be for our generation if we wipe out life because of our ignorance. Earth has a marvelous ability to rebuild and return to a healthy state. After each of the five mass extinction events Earth was resilient enough to survive and so did life. After the most notorious, the Permian Mass Extinction, less than 4% of life survived. Miraculously Earth rebuilt its ecosystems and was able to sustain life. The causes of the

I’m not against the overkill hypothesis by Martin, I’m just being more open minded when it comes to this extinction. I don’t believe that the human were the root and main cause of the extinction. They did have some part in the events that took place of the extinction. However, there are plenty of other means of causes that could have been the reason of the extinction such as the climate changes (warm-cold weather) since some species may not be able to handle some condition that mother nature throws at them. Another example, the sea levels that could of caused the extinction of the species who depended on the water. So, basically from the sea level being salt water to

The End Cretaceous impact hypothesis states that an asteroid impact on the earth caused the extinction. The evidence that supports this hypothesis include the crater found in the Yucatan Peninsula, the rare metal Iridium, and fractured “shocked quartz” crystals that have been shown to cause high-energy explosions. The End Cretaceous flood volcanism hypothesis states that a giant volcano eruption, or a series of volcano eruptions caused the extinction The evidence that supports this hypothesis includes immense lava flow, and volcano explosions, which happen to exposed iridium.

The dinosaurs appeared after the greatest mass extinction event occurred. This is known as the Permian-Triassic extinction. It has been estimated to have occurred around two hundred and fifty million years ago. (6) It is also known as the Great Dying with over ninety percent of species dying off, leaving the Earth essentially a wasteland. It led to the extinction of “57% of all families, 83% of all genera and 90% to 96% of all species. 53% of marine families, 84% of marine genera, about 96% of all marine species and an estimated 70% of land species, including insects.”(7) By the late-Permian, global temperatures were very hot, with them being the highest ever on the planet.

There is another theory proposed that posits that rapid sea level regression followed quickly by transgression caused the mass extinction, at least in the marine realm. According to Schoene and Geux (2010), δ18O values from fossil oysters suggest cool ocean temperatures immediately following the negative δ13C excursion followed by a period of warming. As shown in figure 2, during a time spanning approximately 300,000 years there was a positive carbon isotope anomaly (corresponding with a decrease in sea level along with cooling and glaciation) followed by a period of higher sea levels and a negative carbon isotope anomaly. These findings are consistent with rapid sea level regression-transgression lasting only approximately 290,000 years, which can only be explained

First line of evidence is that volcanic activity from Siberian traps lead to increased amount of carbon dioxide. The eruptions of basalt lava were accompanied by large volume of CO2 (Self, Schmidt, & Mather, 2014). Accumulation of CO2 has long lasting effects on global warming due to its long lifetime. Study conducted by Archer (2005) showed that 400 km3 of flood basalt would release 2 gigatonnes (Gt, 1 Gt = 1012 kg) of carbon. Overall, Siberian traps allowed up to 11 000 Gt of carbon to be released (assuming lava volume of 2.5 million km3). The CO2 degassed during the volcanic period equals total 5000 ppm rise in atmospheric CO2 levels. The volcanism lasted around couple of hundreds of thousands of years, meaning the release of CO2 was prolonged. Thus, atmospheric CO2 was most likely doubled in levels during this eruptive period (Berner, 2002). Doubling of CO2 levels in atmosphere is could have increased the global temperature for 1.5 - 4.5 C (Houghton et al., 2001). Furthermore,

Ever since the history of Earth has been studied using fossil records, extinctions have always been the object of fascination and interest, particularly the mass extinctions that occurred throughout Earth's history. A mass extinction can be caused by disruptive global environmental changes, where large numbers of species have become extinct (Urry et al. 2008). There have been five major extinctions documented based on fossil records over the past 500 million years, but the Cretaceous (KT boundary extinction – a name that meant it began the Tertiary era) extinction caught a lot of

However, such mass extinction opens up speciation – when new species are developed. After the K-Pg extinction, new groups of organisms were on the rise. Giant boid snakes (12 – 15 meters) began appearing on land and the teleost fish (diverse class of ray-finned fish) filled marine niches left vacant. Most significantly, “Paleocene mammals would spread and evolve into the many ecological niches left open by the extinction of the dinosaurs,” (“Cretaceous: Extinction of the Dinosaurs”).

Nobody can really say what actually eliminated the species, although everyone has their very own idea. Asteroid impact, atmospheric changes (hot to cold), catastrophic eruptions and astronomical events (supernovas etc.). Some have ventured that early mammal inhabitation slowly “pushed” the dinosaurs to extinction. The most favored theory in the scientific field is that of the meteor impact. As always though, knowing when is part of discovering how and why.

Rapid climate change also ends up on the suspect list of possible dinosaur extinction events. During the latter part of the Cretaceous Period continents broke up causing volcanoes to erupt and fill the sky with gas and ash resulting in a drastic climate change (“Dinosaurs Climate Change and Biodiversity”). The shifting of continents changed the Earth’s landscape, altering weather patterns and overall climate (“Dinosaur Extinction Theories”). Also, over a long period of time, climate gradually changed. Ocean habits changed, temperatures grew much more extreme causing scorching summers and frigid winters (Norell, Dingus, and Gaffney). Radical temperature changes like these led to a green-house effect, making life for the dinosaurs a lot