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Permian Extinction Not A Global Event
Boulder CO (SPX) Apr 04, 2009 Understanding the cause of the extinction that wiped out some 95% of the living species at the end of the Palaeozoic Era has been one of the greatest problems in the earth and life sciences. All explanations so far proposed have been based on global causes. This Special Paper from the Geological Society of America presents a new approach, one that focuses on the supercontinent of Pangea and the life-rich, enclosed oceanic realm, the Paleo-Tethys. Authors A.M. Celal Sengor and Saniye Atayman of Istanbul Technical University note that the usual approaches to extinction overlook the fact that at the end of the Paleozoic all landmasses were fused together as one giant continent, Pangaea. The supercontinent's internal ocean, the Paleo-Tethys, included the richest niches in the late Permian world. According to Sengor and Atayman, the extinctions occurred within and around this ocean, giving the Permian devastation the aspect of a universal extinction. "What little data we have from the rest of the world indicate that the same extinction did not happen there-except where the surrounding waters were polluted by Palaeo-Tethyan spills." This book documents the history of the Paleo-Tethys and shows that the Permian extinction was an expected result of the peculiarity of the global geography at that time. Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Geological Society of America Darwin Today At TerraDaily.com
Big Fish Are Toast
Chicago IL (SPX) Apr 03, 2009Large size and a fast bite spelled doom for bony fishes during the last mass extinction 65 million years ago, according to a new study to be published March 31, 2009, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. |
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