Aaron Richert

Mr. Marks and Dr. Haas

Integrated Sciences III

May 4, 2017

Permian Triassic Extinction

There have been five major extinctions in Earths history, but the largest

extinction was the Permian Triassic Extinction. The Permian Triassic Extinction,

otherwise known as the Great Dying, occurred roughly 252 million years ago, marking

the change from the Permian and Triassic periods and the Paleozoic and Mesozoic

eras (Shen 3). In terms of percentage, about 96% of all marine life faced extinction,

while about 70% of terrestrial vertebrates (land dwelling beings with spines) faced

extinction (Sahney 5). This is also the only known mass extinction of insects (Sahney

6). Because of the incredible amount of biodiversity that was lost, it is believed to have

taken up to 10 million years for life on Earth to recover.

However, Earths greatest extinction is not without cause. There are two major

schools of thought as to why the Earth faced such a catastrophe: the gradual group and

the catastrophic group. The first school of thought believes that changes to ocean

chemistry and the carbon cycle triggered the largest mass extinction of all time. As the

University of Edinburgh reports, ocean chemistry changed due to heavy volcanic

activity, forcing the ocean to take in much more carbon than usual. They believe that the

amount of carbon released into the atmosphere before the extinction was higher than

the fossil fuel reserves. However, the article says, the rate at which the carbon was

released is very similar to the rate at which it is being released today (Edinburgh). The
catastrophic school of thought takes a more drastic approach. The most popular thought

within the catastrophic group is that the Permian Triassic Extinction was, much like the

Cretacious-Paleogene extinction event, caused by an impact event (like an asteroid or

comet). They believe that the extinction happened much more rapidly than previously

thought and believe that it can only be attributed to an impact event (Becker 1).

As previously stated, 96% of marine life faced extinction while 70% of terrestrial

vertebrates faced extinction. And yes, unfortunately, the End-Permian Extinction (as it is

also called) brought along the end of our ever-loved trilobite (rest in peace, good

buddy). Of course, it took the earth an estimated 10 million years to fully recover from

the damage to its living ecosystem, especially reestablishing the complex food chains.

Immediately following the disaster, disaster taxa thrived and increased their territorial

claim on earth. Disaster taxa are organisms that thrive immediately after a disaster and

populate now vacant areas. However, with the lack of such diverse species, it allowed

for the remaining species to diversify and recover from the event (Sahney 10).

Evidence? Oh, Ill give you evidence. The University of Edinburgh cites new

rocks found in the United Arab Emirates (which were on the seafloor at the time) which

were full of carbon, and detail a record of sea changes at the time. Becker cites

fullerenes (a form of carbon) showing similarities between geologic records from the

PTE and extraterrestrial material.

 This figure is from Sepkoski's Compendium of Marine Fossil Animal Genera,

detailing the intensity of extinction events on the biodiversity of marine fossils. I do not

believe that it needs much explanation, but if you could please focus on the 250-300

mya mark, you can see the drastic intensity of this extinction and the sudden drop

afterwards.

The scariest thing about this research for me has been finding the similarities

between the carbon cycle leading up to this extinction and the carbon cycle that we are

observing now. We havent noted increased volcanic activity, but we have noticed the

increased carbon released from the fossil fuel reserves, and we are coming up on what

is most likely about to be a very scary time in the Earths future, at least for humans.
 Works Cited

Shen S.-Z.; et al. (2011). "Calibrating the End-Permian Mass Extinction". Science. 334 (6061): 1367

1372.

Sahney S; Benton M.J (2008). "Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time".

Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 275 (1636): 759765.

University of Edinburgh. "Greatest mass extinction driven by acidic oceans, study finds." ScienceDaily.

ScienceDaily, 9 April 2015.

Becker, L. "Impact Event at the Permian-Triassic Boundary: Evidence from Extraterrestrial Noble Gases

in Fullerenes." Science 291.5508 (2001): 1530-533. Web.