Extinction: The Permian Period Was Gradual Doom
Friday, February 3, 2012 - 15:40
in Paleontology & Archaeology
The deadliest mass extinction that we know of, 252 million years ago at the end of the Permian period, took a long time to kill most of Earth's life, and it killed in stages. It wasn't superior to sudden extinctions just because it was gradual.By the end of the Permian period, Earth was almost a lifeless planet. Around 90 percent of all living species disappeared then, in what scientists have called "The Great Dying." Chemical evidence buried in rocks formed during this major extinction can tell science part of what happened. read more