Permian Extinction Aftermath

Galvasean

Apparently it took life on Earth about ten million years to bounce back after the Permian extinction. It also appears that life experienced several large scale set backs for the first five or six million years post event.


Read summary here.
Paper here.

Unfortunately the write up is somewhat lacking in detail IMO, while the paper is not open access (the link only contains a short abstract). You need to subscribe.

Oh well here are some cool Permian animals!

Adam Khor

Galvasean wrote: »

Oh well here are some cool Permian animals!

Awesome painting, although the scutosaur kinda reminded me of Captain Gantu from Lilo and Stitch.

Enkidu

Fascinating Galvasean!

Could any of the experts in palaeontology here tell me what is considered the most likely scenario for what caused the extinction?

Adam Khor

Enkidu wrote: »

Fascinating Galvasean!

Could any of the experts in palaeontology here tell me what is considered the most likely scenario for what caused the extinction?

I wouldn´t call myself an expert in paleontology, but according to what I've read, the cause was global warming :pac:
Apparently, just before the end of the Permian there were a series of tremendous volcanic eruptions in what is today Siberia. It apparently released vast amounts of volcanic gas into the atmosphere causing global warming which collapses many ecosystems both in the sea and on land.


Oh and Wikipedia mentions something that's new to me- that due to the global warming, the ocean became so anoxic that it was dominated by sulfur-reducing organisms that released vast amounts of the poisonous gas hydrogen sulfide into the air, making matters even worst. Scary...:eek:

Coriolanus

Adam Khor wrote: »

I wouldn´t call myself an expert in paleontology, but according to what I've read, the cause was global warming :pac:
Apparently, just before the end of the Permian there were a series of tremendous volcanic eruptions in what is today Siberia. It apparently released vast amounts of volcanic gas into the atmosphere causing global warming which collapses many ecosystems both in the sea and on land.


Oh and Wikipedia mentions something that's new to me- that due to the global warming, the ocean became so anoxic that it was dominated by sulfur-reducing organisms that released vast amounts of the poisonous gas hydrogen sulfide into the air, making matters even worst. Scary...:eek:

Don't forget the methan clathrate deposits in the permafrost, ya know, the one's that can be seen fizzing away into the air once again for the past decade or so...:eek:

Adam Khor

Coriolanus wrote: »

Don't forget the methan clathrate deposits in the permafrost, ya know, the one's that can be seen fizzing away into the air once again for the past decade or so...:eek:

I had no idea about that but sounds even scarier :O As if prehistoric microbes released from glaciers weren´t bad enough...