Scientists have identified five major mass extinctions in Earth's history, each wiping out over 70% of life. Evidence suggests the current Anthropocene era, marked by human impact, could be triggering a sixth. Studying past extinctions, often linked to volcanic activity, ocean warming, and ozone depletion, can help us understand the threats to biodiversity today.
I agree my information will be processed in accordance with the Scientific American and Springer Nature LimitedLife on our planet has experienced many mass extinctions over its 4.5 billion years. Scientists see evidence for at least five major episodes that eradicated creatures great and small. And many experts argue that the Anthropocene age, the current period of human activity altering Earth, is causing a sixth.
Paleontologists track mass extinctions by studying rock samples from different eras. When they reach a point where large numbers of species that had been abundant in the earlier fossil record become scarce, they’ve found an extinction event. The big five extinctions all wiped out more than 70 percent of Earth life at the time—and the most -lethal of them, the Permian-Triassic extinction around 252 million years ago, most likely took down more than 90 percent.
The origins of these extinctions are still being debated, but scientists think that most involved large spates of volcanism—giant rifts opening in Earth’s surface and spewing lava over periods of thousands or even millions of years.
Studying our geological past can also teach us about the present, says David Bond, a mass extinction expert at the University of Hull in England. “We need to learn lessons from these events and use them to try to understand our potential impending diversity crisis.”Several of the causes listed here—including volcanism and sea-level change—aren’t necessarily major kill mechanisms in and of themselves.
MASS EXTINCTION ANTHROPOCENE VOLCANISM CLIMATE CHANGE BIODIVERSITY
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