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Published online: 4 January 2012 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2012.5

Paleoclimatology: The doomsday scenario

Amanda Yu

Introduction

© (2011) istockphoto.com/Byronsdad

The Earth's largest mass extinction took place around 250 million years ago, right at the end of the Permian period. The event, known as the Great Dying, wiped out more than 90% of species alive at that time.

Scientists have proposed several explanations for the Great Dying, including asteroid impact and increased volcanism. Shuzhong Shen and Yue Wang at Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology in China, Samuel Bowring at Boise State University in the United States and co-workers¹ have now obtained evidence that the real cause was rapid global warming.

The researchers studied the age, composition and structure of several sedimentary sections in South China. In these sedimentary sections, a boundary was identifiable between two volcanic ash beds, corresponding to the end of the Permian period when the Great Dying took place. High-precision uranium-lead dating pinpointed the age of the boundary at 252.28 million years ago.

Carbon isotope analysis and biostratigraphy revealed a sudden loss of tropical rainforests and biodiversity around the time of the Great Dying. Charcoal layers and plant microfossils found close to the boundary suggested the possibility of widespread wildfires, promoting rapid global warming, climate change, and ultimately the Great Dying.

The authors of this work are from:
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Nanjing, China; Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; Department of Geosciences, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho, USA; Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA; Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California, USA; Lorenz Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China; School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Department of Geology, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, China; University of Bremen, Breman, Germany; School of Resources and Geosciences, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, China; Jiangsu Geological Survey of Architectural Institute, Xuzhou, China.

Reference

1. Shen, S. Z. et al. Calibrating the end-Permian mass extinction. Science doi:10.1126/science.1213454 (2011). | Article | OpenURL