Discover Top Posts Tagged with #permian extinction

Gone 251 million years too soon, rip to a real one

#trilobite #paleontology #archeaology #the great dying #cambrian period #permian period #Permian extinction #rip to the trilobite you were a real one

Thoughts?

#permian extinction #paleontology #i made this because i got an excuse to talk about it in class and i got so excited #i am not excited for the actual concept of the great dying. to be clear #mad rambling

Deep Time’s Before and After Permian Extinction Tank, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

#smithsonian #national museum of natural history #permian #triassic #permian extinction #aquarium

Earth 250 million years ago: "I'm about to do whats called a Pro Gamer Move" *extinguishes 90 percent of all species*

#paleontology #permian extinction #the great dying

90% of life on Earth dies

Lystrosaurus:

#paleontology #paleoblr #Permian extinction #lystrosaurus

Evolutionary History of Life

Hey all, I have been taking a course about the history of life this term and thought maybe people would like to know more about it. God knows I love reading about it! This information was collected in both parts from my course, and research online on my own time. Note that as with all paleontology, all of these findings are based only on the evidence we currently possess, and are subject to change. I hope you enjoy!

Living Rocks?!: Stromatolites

Possibly as early as 3.7 billion (!!!) years ago, bacteria and (green) algae became visible on the fossil record, due to this phenomena. Still existing today in some brackish lakes, colonies of bacteria come together and gradually form a “rock” structure. Only the outermost layers (centimeters) are composed of living organisms, with the rest being solid sediments from the surrounding area. The world was covered in the things, peaking 1.25 billion years ago, then falling as they were eaten by newly evolved “complex” life.

The Goopy Times: Edicarian

What we could call animals first evolved roughly 600 million years ago. With a few exceptions, nearly everything at this time had no hard body parts. Most animals at this time were only a few millimeters in length, however the large flesh pancake seen center stage in the picture below, Dickinsonia, could grow up to almost 5 feet long! Also growing to large sizes were Charnia, plant-like animals that could grow almost 7 feet tall from the seafloor. They highly resemble an unrelated modern animal, the sea pen.

Not-coral-reefs and Hard Body Parts (finally): Tommotian (Early Cambrian)

The change from Precambrian to Cambrian is tied to the appearance of trace fossils (fossils depicting the activities of organisms, such as footprints) about 541 million years ago, specifically trace fossils in the sediments. Before this, food was likely found through photosynthesis for those that lived in harmony with green algae, filter feeding, or just roaming the ocean floor for scraps. Once animals evolved to look under the floor though, a new feeding mechanism was introduced to life.

Hard body parts, and thus more easily fossilized organisms, were diversified at this time. One group of organisms in particular, the archaeocyathids (pictured, background), were almost entirely hard material, forming “cups” and filtering water carried through the tide, over time forming the first reefs of the world.

Life!!!!!Death!!Spines!?: Cambrian

From 541 to 485 million years ago, life began taking on many weird and wonderful forms. Trilobites evolved early (two are present slightly up-left of the center of the image), nature’s super successful bottom-feeders (until they died (spoilers)). Predation wasn’t seen in the fossil record until now, and nature came in swinging. Meter long predators like Anomalocaris appeared (two are visible in the image), weird weird stuff like Opabinia swam about (one is in the center of the image). The ocean became scary!

Also appearing in this period is a big step towards us: vertebrates! Pikaia was a small fishlike creature resembling a modern lancelet (down-left of the Opabinia). It had no spine, but it had a notochord, a long bundle of nerves, which developed into the spines most of us are using at this moment.

Where I start relying on the internet Ordovician

After a 42 million year long mass extinction that wiped out 60% of marine life, life bounced back in a big way. Trilobites survived the extinction event, and continued to flourish, diversifying into many odd and spiny forms to protect against a new predator, eurypterids and nautiloids.

Eurypterids were large arthropods (the largest ever known!), related to arachnids, and were very successful predators, achieving worldwide distribution throughout their time on the planet. Nautiloids we still have today to some extent, were once the main predators of the ocean for an era. Some could grow to lengths of 11 feet, and somewhat questionable evidence hints at much larger individuals up to 36 feet (paleontology is hard).

Land! Plants! Bigger Better Fish!: Silurian

After a particularly horrid series of extinction events in sequence lasting from 455 to 430 million years ago, killing 60% of all marine species, life recovered. Our lovable trilobites were hit hard, but again they survived and thrived once more. Their predators the eurypterids continued to grow and thrive as well, though now beginning to move their attention to less saline waters.

Dry land had up to this point been relatively uninteresting, however in this period it began to quickly be taken over by recently evolved vascular plants. Life on land at this point was present, but not yet diverse, consisting of various arachnids and millipede/centipede ancestors.

“Age of Fish”: Devonian

Back in the ocean 419-358 million years ago, life kept getting bigger, with fish diversifying into many new groups, particularly the armored fish, placoderms. The largest member, Dunkleosteus (second picture), and maybe my favorite animal, grew to sizes of 20 feet, and weighed up to 1 ton. In addition to it’s size, it was heavily armored, and had a complex jaw mechanism that let it open and close it’s maw in just 50-60 milliseconds. It’s theorized that this could create a suction to draw in prey, and then slice them with a 6000-7400 N bite focused along a sharp, scissor-like jaw. In other words, a pretty scary fish.

Plant life on land also diversified in a major way, with rooted plants and leaves evolving. These early “trees” were relatively very short compared to our modern variety, only several centimeters tall. However, giant fungal spires, Prototaxites, grew up to over 8 meters tall. However, all this photosynthesis led to lower carbon dioxide, possibly leading to some very unfortunate side affects.

Bugs, Sharks, and Frogs: Carboniferous

With another chain of extinction events out of the way, this one dealing a major blow to the trilobites they would never recover from (at this point the eurypterids were fairly content on land and in fresh water), life resumed it’s grind. Trees became the titans we know today, and as a result of a material that allowed the increased height, were not able to be broken down for a long long time, meaning that when a tree fell, it stayed there.

Insects radiated, with the massive 8 foot Arthropleura (pictured) crawling the forests, as well as giant cockroaches and scorpions, and dragonflies in the air. Amphibians, who had been present for a small while before, became common. Reptiles, evolving from amphibians due to a more dry climate, began spreading. Meanwhile in the oceans, sharks radiated, with the placoderm competition gone. 298 million years ago, the carboniferous ended, and a new period began, one that’s name is closely related to death, devastation, and extinction.

Permian

It is unfortunate that at least in my mind the permian is so exclusively thought of in a mournful tone. Many amazing animals evolved during this time, and the supercontinent Pangaea lives on in the public, unconnected to the wasteland it became. In the center of Pangaea was a massive desert stained red by the sun. Seeded plants and conifers replaced the previous swampy trees. The most successful insects at this time were cockroach-like.

Synapsids, a group that like reptiles branched off from amphibians early on, diversified in this period, leading to such species as the famous Dimetrodon, and would later evolve into mammals. Diapsids, which would one day become our beloved dinosaurs, also evolved at this time. With the first large terrestrial carnivores and herbivores, the land finally began to somewhat resemble the world we know today.

Then it almost all ended. Life itself on the surface of this planet, billions of years in the making, might have ended. 95% of ocean life died, 70% of all life on land. It took the land 30 million years to recover from the Permian extinction. Simply put, the world boiled. Lava poured from the earth’s mantle for thousands of years, possibly releasing so much carbon dioxide that the global temperature would have increased by 5 degrees Celsius. Another factor might have been oceanic venting of hydrogen sulfide, causing poisonous ocean in the deep, and then evaporating into the atmosphere to destroy ozone, allowing ultraviolet radiation to burn life. The five degree temperature increase could thaw methane deposits, further increasing the heat by another five degrees. It could have been caused by a supernova, there is also evidence of a giant meteorite striking the Earth at this time.

The worst catastrophe of life on our planet drew to a close, life recovered slowly, and soon after were the dinosaurs so that’s good. It is 3 am now, I started this at 11:30. To spare you all increasing plagiarism from wikipedia, I will take a rest, and begin anew later. I hope you enjoyed learning, if my style wasn’t interesting at least you can google key terms and find better more accurate material. Byeee

The Great Dying: When Earth Nearly Lost Everything

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — January 27, 2026 Around 252 million years ago, life on Earth came closer to total collapse than at any other time in the planet’s history. This event, known as the Permian–Triassic extinction event, eliminated most complex life in both the oceans and on land. Scientists often call it the Great Dying—and the…

#Earth history #evolutionary biology #mass extinction #paleoclimate #Permian extinction #planetary systems

Because I’m researching the Permian extinction, I feel the visceral need to info dump and I’ve already harassed by friends about this but I NEEDDDD to tell someone else <3

okayyy, soooooo

The Permian was a time that was mostly regarded as one of the ages of mammal. At the time, the reptile family that lead to dinosaurs and even birds were very small, lizard like creatures. The mammal ancestors were quite large and were a vast majority of apex predators. Things were great in the oceans and land with large bouts of biodiversity in the animals and the plants. Things like Ginkos and Cycads appeared, as did the famous Dimetrodon. Which is NOT A DINOSAUR NO MATTER WHAT JURASSIC PARK SAYS. Dimetrodon was an EARLY MAMMAL ANCESTOR and was NOT from the Jurassic. Screw Jurassic Park. They lieeee.

anyways

Towards the end of the Permian Period, there was something brewing and bubbling underneath the Earth’s crust. Now, I’m not exactly what triggered the trigger event of the extinction, but something caused MASSIVE TROUBLE. The world would NEVER be the same.

In Russia, 13.1 million square kilometers (3 million square miles) is covered in basalt that has an average thickness of 1 kilometer (0.621 miles). This landmark is a solid layer of basalt that is 2,800 kilometers thick (1739.839 miles thick). Some spots are more thick than others. Now, what is basalt? It sounds like a stupid question, but I swear to god I have actually had people ask me that. Basalt is hardened lava and is what we refer to as lava rock. Now, what caused this expansive layer of basalt on the surface of earth? This landmark mark, the Siberian Traps, was the trigger event that lead to the greatest biodiversity loss in the history of our planet.

250 million years ago, magma broke the surface of Earth and poured out. Hundreds and thousands of gallons of magma. Hot, deadly magma. This expulsion of magma caused tons of gasses to escape with it. These two things in combination worked together to create a hellscape never seen before and, hopefully never seen again.

Now, the Siberian Traps magma expulsions and gasses weren’t the only things that worked together to kill everything. The magma was just the trigger. It did kill a lot, but it started a chain of events that that would lead to 90% of all life going extinct.

The gasses overheated the atmosphere by working as insulators and that killed and dried out plants, which caused wild fires. Plants that died near the rivers were carried out to oceans and caused excessive fertilization. That fertilization started the beginnings of eutrophication, which is excessive algae growth and death that would release anoxic gasses. This meant that the oceans had massive dead spots that lacked oxygen, plants, and animals. Lots of oxygen was pushed down into the ocean’s depths and killed nearly everything that had adapted and evolved to live with minimal oxygen. 96% of all life in the ocean died.

Land was fairing better, but not by much. The heat and plant death loosened the soil and caused rivers to stop flowing entirely. Ponds and lakes were anoxic and couldn’t be drunk out of. Animals that were used to humid environments were now forced to adapt to a hot, dry, hellscape with minimal food. The rain was normally a very good thing, and it was, but it was a double edged sword. The rain cooled the animals and provided water, but this water was recycled from the oceans, lakes, and ponds, which meant it was also anoxic and even acidic (it’s PH level was probably still drinkable and probably didn’t cause damage, it just wasn’t at a PH of 7, therefor making it acidic). The acidity was caused by the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. 80% of all life on land was dead.

There were survivors, obviously, but the devastation of this extinction will be felt forever. It took millions of years for the recovery to get to a developmental stage where it could even be considered recovered. Things like Ginkos, Lystrosaurus (the early mammal ancestor that lead to the rest of us and is the reason we have 5 fingers, not 8), ferns, seed bearing plants, some bugs, and even some cone bearing plants, along with some reptiles were the survivors. Of course that list is quite simplified, but to put it into perspective it would be easier to list everything that survived than it would be to list everything that died.

This event is what we lovingly refer to as the Great Dying. This is the worst biodiversity death ever experienced.

I am having SO MUCH fun researching this extinction and it’s scratching an itch in my brain that is very cathartic. It’s pretty late for me right now and I just got off of work, but I really, really wanted to tell someone about this. I’ve been waiting to info dump because I’m writing a research paper (I already have 50 credible sources, not including pictures) and I’m just gonna make my friends and family read that. Also, some of those early mammal ancestors are TRULY stupendous specimens. Absolute units, in fact. One example being Cotylorhynchus: