The history of life on Earth has been punctuated by several mass extinctions, the greatest of these being the Permian-Triassic extinction event, also known as the “Great Dying,” which occurred 252 million years ago. While scientists generally agree on its causes, exactly how this mass extinction unfolded—and the ecological collapse that followed—remains a mystery. In a study published today in Current Biology, researchers analyzed marine ecosystems before, during, and after the “Great Dying” to better understand the series of events that led to ecological destabilization. In doing so, the international study team—composed of researchers from the California Academy of Sciences, the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), and the University of Bristol—revealed that biodiversity loss may be the harbinger of a more devastating ecological collapse, a concerning finding given that the rate of species loss today outpaces that during the “Great Dying.”
“The Permian-Triassic extinction serves as a model for studying biodiversity loss on our planet today,” says Academy Curator of Geology Peter Roopnarine, PhD. “In this study, we determined that species loss and ecological collapse occurred in two distinct phases, with the latter taking place about 60,000 years after the initial biodiversity crash.”
Read more at: California Academy of Sciences
A recreation of the seafloor from the Permian period. (Photo Credit: University of Michigan Museum of Natural History)