Poll of the Day > Scientists just found a hidden 6th mass extinction in Earth's ancient past...

(+) Yeah! (+)

I saw this while at work today, and thought it was interesting

https://www.livescience.com/1st-mass-extinction-oxygen-drop

A global drop in oxygen levels about 550 million years ago led to Earth's first known mass extinction, new evidence suggests.

The height of the Ediacaran period, about 550 million years ago, was a boom time for life in Earth's oceans. Petalonamids shaped like feathers sucked nutrients from the water, slug-like Kimberella grazed on microbial mats, and the ancestors of jellyfish were just beginning to make waves.

But then 80% of life on Earth disappeared, leaving no traces in the fossil record.

Now, a new study suggests that these missing fossils point to the earliest known mass extinction event on Earth. These first communities of large, complex animals were killed by a steep global decline in oxygen a finding that may have implications for modern ocean ecosystems threatened by human activities.

"This represents the oldest recognized major
extinction event in the fossil record of animals,"
said lead study author Scott Evans, a postdoctoral
researcher at Virginia Tech. "It is consistent with all
major mass extinctions, in being linked to climate
change."

Animals have passed through the evolutionary crucible of mass extinctions at least five times. There were the Ordovician-Silurian and the Devonian extinctions (440 million and 365 million years ago, respectively), which killed off many marine organisms. Then, there were the Permian-Triassic also known as the "Great Dying" and Triassic-Jurassic extinctions (250 million and 210 million years ago, respectively), which affected ocean vertebrates and land animals. The most recent mass extinction, about 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period, wiped out approximately 75% of plants and animals, including nonavian dinosaurs.

Whether one more mass extinction should be added to that list has been an open question among paleontologists for some time. Scientists have long known about the sudden decline in fossil diversity 550 million years ago, but it was unclear if that was due to a sudden mass extinction event.

One possible explanation could be that early trilobites armored and often helmet-headed marine arthropods began competing with Ediacaran fauna, causing the latter to die out. Another possible explanation is that Ediacaran fauna lived on, but the conditions necessary for preserving Ediacaran fossils existed only until 550 million years ago. "People recognized that there was a change in biota at this time," Evans said. "But there were significant questions about what the causes might be."

Theres more info the article I just took like the first part It was an interesting read, though

Damn. Love this kind of ancient history. Same with all the different 'supercontinents'. Would be cool to see a video overlaying continental drift with depictions of the 'spread of life' and subsequent extinctions.

550 million years ago
440 million years ago (110 from previous)
365 million years ago (75 from previous)
250 million years ago (115 from previous)
210 million years ago (40 from previous)
66 million years ago (144 from previous)

So, the pattern shows we should have had another extinction event between 66 and 26 million years ago, but since we didn't, my analysis concludes that there will be no more mass extinction events.

ReturnOfFa posted...

Damn. Love this kind of ancient history. Same with all the different 'supercontinents'. Would be cool to see a video overlaying continental drift with depictions of the 'spread of life' and subsequent extinctions.

That would be pretty cool, tbh

LinkPizza posted...

That would be pretty cool, tbh

This one is cool but doesn't involve life as well. It would take a pretty big collab I think.
https://youtu.be/Q1OreyX0-fw

It would most likely take a long time. That would be a shitton of research

With so many extinction events it really makes your wonder how different life was between each one, sure we have pieces of it in fossils and carbon levels in different layers of rock and shit but there's so much that was completely lost to time from each one. There's so many different animals and potentially other kinds of lifeforms we'll never know about that would completely change how we view the world. For all we know humanity or something similar has had great empires that lasted longer than our known history but were taken out from one of those extinction events and were lost to time.

Actually I should correct myself, that video I posted does have some pretty great notes on life forming, it just isn't graphically represented. So that's pretty cool, just takes a lot of pausing to take it all in.

not an oxy drop probably the exact opposite
scientist are lying

LinkPizza posted...

But then 80% of life on Earth disappeared, leaving no traces in the fossil record.

But wait. If it left no trace in the fossil record... then how do these so-called scientists know about them at all?

I call shenanigans!



MrCool812 posted...

So, the pattern shows we should have had another extinction event between 66 and 26 million years ago, but since we didn't, my analysis concludes that there will be no more mass extinction events.

We're arguably causing one right now:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction

ParanoidObsessive posted...

We're arguably causing one right now:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction

No argument needed. My data analysis is undeniable.

MrCool812 posted...

So, the pattern shows we should have had another extinction event between 66 and 26 million years ago, but since we didn't, my analysis concludes that there will be no more mass extinction events.

It was overdue, and is working slow AF, but humanity came along to mess with things. I mean what?