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Subsurface Magma Triggers Earth’s Most Severe Extinction

By Guest PostNovember 12, 2017Environmentlarge igneous provinces, lava flows, lips, mass extinction, seth burgess, siberian traps, sills, subsurface magma intrusions

Subsurface magma intrusions (sills), rather than surface lava flows, may have triggered the Earth’s most catastrophic extinction event approximately 252 million years ago. (more…)

How to see a mass extinction if it’s right in front of you

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2016Nature, Scienceecological ghosts, elizabeth kolbert, how to see, mass extinction, nicolle fuller, pincelli hull, sayo art, simon darroch, sixth extinction

A Yale-led study urges scientists to move their focus from species extinction to species rarity in order to recognize, and avoid, a mass extinction in the modern world. (more…)

Doubt cast on global firestorm generated by dino-killing asteroid

By Guest PostJanuary 24, 2015Scienceancient pigment, eco friendly vehicle, egyptian blue, extinction of dinosaurs, extinction of species, global firestorm, hydrogen fuel cell, lance gande, life, mass extinction, million years ago, theory, university of exeter

Pioneering new research has debunked the theory that the asteroid that is thought to have led to the extinction of dinosaurs also caused vast global firestorms that ravaged planet Earth.

A team of researchers from the University of Exeter, University of Edinburgh and Imperial College London recreated the immense energy released from an extra-terrestrial collision with Earth that occurred around the time that dinosaurs became extinct. They found that the intense but short-lived heat near the impact site could not have ignited live plants, challenging the idea that the impact led to global firestorms. (more…)

The Mystery of Lizard Breath

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2013Nature3d image, aerodynamic valves, african savannah, alligators, archosaurs, c g farmer, ct scans, dinosaurs, emma schachner, evolution, fast metabolisms, flying pterosaurs, gular pumping, harvard university, humans, james butler, lepidosauromorpha, lizard breath, lizard like creature, lungs, mass extinction, monitor lizards, mystery, one way patterns, oxygen consumption, permian triassic, rate, robert cieri, tidal breathing pattern, tuataras, unidirectional airflow, university of utah, varanus exanthematicus

One-Way Air Flow May Be 270 Million Years Old

Air flows mostly in a one-way loop through the lungs of monitor lizards – a breathing method shared by birds, alligators and presumably dinosaurs, according to a new University of Utah study.

The findings – published online Wednesday, Dec. 11 in the journal Nature – raise the possibility this breathing pattern originated 270 million years ago, about 20 million years earlier than previously believed and 100 million years before the first birds. Why remains a mystery. (more…)

Acid raid, ozone depletion contributed to ancient extinction

By Guest PostDecember 2, 2013Science3d modeling technique, acid raid, ancient extinction, arctic siberia, atmospheric effects, base, benjamin black, carbon dioxide, christine shields, CO2, earth history, ecological diversity, fluctuations in ph, global ozone collapse, jean francois lamarque, jeffrey kiehl, kotuy river, linda elkins tanton, mass extinction, massachusetts institute, ozone depletion, permian mass extinction, permian period, rise of dinosaurs, russia, Siberia, siberian traps, so2, sulfur dioxide, Technology, terrestrial species, ultraviolet radiation, volcanic eruptions, volcanic rock, volcanic sequence

Washington, D.C.— Around 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, there was a mass extinction so severe that it remains the most traumatic known species die-off in Earth’s history. Some researchers have suggested that this extinction was triggered by contemporaneous volcanic eruptions in Siberia. New results from a team including Director of Carnegie’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Linda Elkins-Tanton show that the atmospheric effects of these eruptions could have been devastating. Their work is published in Geology.

The mass extinction included the sudden loss of more than 90 percent of marine species and more than 70 percent of terrestrial species and set the stage for the rise of the dinosaurs. The fossil record suggests that ecological diversity did not fully recover until several million years after the main pulse of the extinction. (more…)

A key to mass extinctions could boost food, biofuel production

By Guest PostMay 21, 2013Naturebiofuel production, concentration, extinction events, food crops, frederick dooley, genetic signaling, great dying, hydrogen sulfide, key, level, mass extinction, parts per million, permian period, peter ward, rate of germination, rotten egg smell, species on earth, suven nair, toxic effects, university of washington, water

Hydrogen sulfide, the pungent stuff often referred to as sewer gas, is a deadly substance implicated in several mass extinctions, including one at the end of the Permian period 251 million years ago that wiped out more than three-quarters of all species on Earth.

But in low doses, hydrogen sulfide could greatly enhance plant growth, leading to a sharp increase in global food supplies and plentiful stock for biofuel production, new University of Washington research shows. (more…)

What Happened to Dinosaurs’ Predecessors After Earth’s Largest Extinction 252 Million Years Ago?

By Guest PostMay 4, 2013Scienceadam huttenlocker, africa, after the extinction, Antarctica, asilisaurus, australia, biogeographic patterns, brandon peecook, christian sidor, daril vilhena, dinosaurs in tanzania, dinosaurs predecessors, earliest dinosaur, earth, expeditions to antarctica, fossil hunting expeditions, fossil record, four legged animals, h richard lane, India, karoo, ken angielczyk, largest extinction, linda tsuji, mass extinction, museum fossils, national science foundation, nyasasaurus parringtoni, paleontologist, pig sized dicynodon, predecessors to dinosaurs, roger smith, sebastien steyer, snapshots, South Africa, south america, southern pangea, southwest russia, species distributions, sterling nesbitt, university of washington, unorthodox places, zambia, zambian basins

Fossil-hunting expeditions to Tanzania, Zambia and Antarctica provide new insights

Predecessors to dinosaurs missed the race to fill habitats emptied when nine out of 10 species disappeared during Earth’s largest mass extinction 252 million years ago.

Or did they?

That thinking was based on fossil records from sites in South Africa and southwest Russia.

It turns out, however, that scientists may have been looking in the wrong places. (more…)

Before Dinosaurs’ Era, Volcanic Eruptions Triggered Mass Extinction

By Guest PostMarch 25, 2013Scienceend triassic extinction, magmatic activity, mass extinction, milankovich cycles, triassic extinction, volcanic eruptions

Increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, global warming, ocean acidification killed 76 percent of species on Earth

More than 200 million years ago, a massive extinction decimated 76 percent of marine and terrestrial species, marking the end of the Triassic period and the onset of the Jurassic. (more…)

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